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Books and Stationery, 



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WALKS IN LONDON 

VOL. I. 



"Out of monuments, names, wordes, proverbs, traditions, private recordes and 
evidences, fragments of stories, passages of bookes, and the like, we doe save and 
recover somewhat from the deluge of Time." 

Lord Bacon. Advance of Learning. 

" They who make researches into Antiquity, may be said to passe often through 
many dark lobbies and dusky places, before they come to the Art/a liicis, the great 
hall of light ; they must repair to old archives, and peruse many moulded and 
moth-eaten records, and so bring light as it were out of darkness, to inform the 
present world what the former did, and make us see truth through our ancestors' 
eyes, 

y. Howel. Londinopolis. 

" I'll see these things !— Tliey're rare and passing curious— 
But thus 'tis ever ; what's within our ken, 
Owl-like, we blink at, and direct our search 
To farthest Inde in quest of novelties ; 
Whilst here, at home, upon our very thresholds, 
Ten thousand objects hurtle into view, 
Of Int'rest wonderful." 

OidPlay. 



WALKS IN LONDON 



BY 

AUGUSTUS JcT'C/HARE 

AUTHOR OF " WALKS ^IN ROME," " CITIES OF NORTHERN AND CENTRAL ITALY, 
"memorials of A QUIET LIFE," ETC. 



jctc/hare 



TWO VOLUMES IN ONE 



NEW YORK 
GEORGE ROUTLEDGE AND SONS 

416 BROOME STREET 
1880 



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<. 

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H.R.H. THE DUKE OF CONNAUGHT 

IN GRATEFUL REMEMBRANCE OF 
PLEASANT WALKS IN A GREATER AND OLDER CITY 

THESE VOLUMES 
ARE RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED. 



PREFACE. 



LONG ago, when I was a boy at a private tutor's near 
Edmonton, the only book in which I could find any 
interest or amusement in the scanty library of the house 
was Charles Knight's " London," and the pleasure derived 
from it led to my spending every sixpence I could save, and 
every holiday on which I could get leave, in seeing some of 
the places it described. 

London is much changed since that time ; but the solitary 
expeditions I then made through its historic sights, so in- 
expressibly delightful at the time, laid a foundation for the 
work of the last two years, of which these volumes are the 
result. They aim at nothing original, indeed any one who 
attempts a work of the kind must, to borrow the language of 
the author of "Eothen," be "subjected to the immutable law 
which compels a man with a pen in his hand to be uttering 
now and then some sentiment not his own, as though, like 
the French peasant under the old regime ^ he were bound to 
perform a certain amount of work on the public highways." 
But, when I was wishing to know something about London 



nil PREFACE, 

myself, in spite r^ the multiplicity of works upon the sub- 
ject, I felt the want of having things brought together in 
the order in which they occur, of one recollection being in- 
terlaced with another in a way which might help me to 
remember it, and this is what I have tried to do for others. 

In these two volumes I believe that all the objects of 
interest in London are described consecutively, as they may 
be visited in excursions, taking Charing Cross as a centre. 
The first volume is chiefly devoted to the City, the second 
to the West End and Westminster. 

I. have followed the plan adopted in my books on Italy, 
of introrlucing quotations from other and better authors, 
where they apply to my subject ; and, while endeavouring 
to make "Walks in London" something more interesting 
than a Guide-book, I have tried, especially in Westminster 
Abbey and the Picture Galleries, to give such details as 
may suggest new lines of inquiry to those who care to 
linger and investigate. 

The Histories of London, and the Histories of especial 
points connected with London, are too numerous to men- 
tion. They are all to be found in the admirable Library at 
the Guildhall, which is the greatest advantage to a local 
antiquarian, and leaves little to be desired except a better 
Catalogue. Of the various works by which I have benefited 
in my own rambles through London, I should mention with 
marked gratitude the many volumes of Mr. John Timbs, 
especially his " Curiosities of London," enriched by " Sixty 
Years' P.^rsonal Recollections," and the admirable articles 



PREFACE. ix 

on the old houses and churches of London which, for 
many years, have from time to time appeared in " The 
Builder." 

Some of the chapters in " Walks in London " have been 
already published, in a condensed form, in *' Good Words " 
for 1877. The illustrations, with two or three exceptions, 
are from my own sketches taken on the spot, and carefully 
transferred to wood by the skill of Mr. T. Sulman. 

I shall gladly and gratefully receive any corrections of 
errors found in my work by those who follow in my foot- 
steps. 

AUGUSTUS J. C. HARE. 

HoLMHURST, Hastings, 
November^ 1877. 



CONTENTS OF VOL. L 



CHAP. PAGE 

I. THE STRAND I 

II. THE INNS OF COURT 57 

III. BY FLEET STREET TO ST. PAUL'S lOI 

IV. ST. Paul's and its surroundings . . . . 128 

1^ '^MITHFIELD, CLERKENWELL, AND CANONBURY . . I72 

VI. CHEAPSIDE 222 

VII. ALDERSGATE AND CRIPPLEGATE 258 

VIII. BISHOPSGATE 280 

IX. IN THE HEART OF THE CITY 32 1 

X. THE TOWER AND ITS SURROUNDINGS .... 363 

XI. THAMES STREET 42O 

XII. LONDON BRIDGE AND SOUTHWARK .... 445 



INTRODUCTORY. 



" O IR, the happiness of London is not to be conceived 
»^ but by those who have been in it. I will venture 
to say there is more learning and science within the circum- 
ference of ten miles from where we sit than in all the rest 
of the kingdom." Such was the dictum of Dr. Johnson 
when he was seated \vith Bos well in the Mitre Tavern near 
Temple Bar, and how many thousands of people before and 
since have felt the same cat-like attachment as the old 
philosopher to the vast town of multitudinous life and 
ever-changing aspects ? As Cowper says — 

** Where has Pleasure such a field, 
So rich, so thronged, so drained, so well supplied, 
As London — opulent, enlarged, and still 
Increasing London." 

Macaulay had the reputation of having walked through 
every street in London, but if we consider the ever-growing 
size of the town we cannot believe that anyone else will 
<;ver do so : for more people live in London already than in 
the whole of Denmark or Switzerland, more than twice as 
many as in Saxony or Norway, and nearly as many as in 
Scotland. And, if we trust to old prophecies. London has 



XIV INTRODUCTORY. 

still to be doubled in circumference, for Mother Sbipton 
says that the day will come when Highgate Hill shall be in 
the middle of the town. Few indeed are the Londoners 
who see more than a small circuit around their homes, the 
main arteries of mercantile life, and some of the principal 
sights. It is very easy to live with eyes open, but it is more 
usual, and a great deal more fashionable, to live with eyes 
shut. Scarcely any man in what is usually called " society " 
has the slightest idea of what there is to be seen in his 
own great metropolis, because he never looks, or still more 
perhaps, because he never inquires, and the architectural 
and historical treasures of the City are almost as unknown 
to the West End as the buried cities of Bashan or the lost 
tombs of Etruria. Strangers also, especially foreigners, 
who come perhaps with the very object of seeing London, 
are inclined to judge it by its general aspects, and do not 
stay long enough to find out its more hidden resources. 
They never find out that the London of Brook Street and 
Grosvenor Street, still more the odious London of Tyburnia, 
Belgravia, and South Kensington, is as different to the 
London of our great-grandfathers as modernised Paris is to 
the oldest town in Brittany, and dwellers in the West End 
do not know that they might experience almost the refresh- 
ment and tonic of going abroad in the transition from 
straight streets and featureless houses to the crooked 
thoroughfares half-an-hour off, where every street has a 
reminiscence, and every turn is a picture. There is a 
passage in Heinrich Heine which says, " You may send a 
philosopher to London, but by no means a poet. The 
bare earnestness of everything, the colossal sameness, the 
machine-like movement, oppresses the imagination and 



INTRODUCTOR Y. XV 

rends the heart in twain." But those who know London 
well will think that Heine must have stayed at an hotel in 
Wimpole Street, and that his researches can never have 
taken him much beyond Oxford Street and its surroundings ; 
and that a poet might find plenty of inspiration, if he would 
do what is so easy, and break the ice of custom, and see 
London as it really is — in its strange varieties of society, in 
its lights and shadows of working life, in its endless old 
buildings which must ever have a hold on the inmost sym- 
pathies of those who look upon them, and who, while 
learning the story they tell of many generations, seem to 
realise that they are " in the presence of their fame and feel 
their influence." 

An artist, after a time, will find London more interesting 
than any other place, for nowhere are there such atmo- 
spheric eff'ects on fine days, and nowhere is the enormous 
power of blue more felt in the picture; while the soot, 
which puts all the stones into mourning, makes everything 
look old. The detractors of the charms of London always 
lay their strongest emphasis upon its fogs — 

" More like a distillation of mud than anything else ; the ghost of 
mud, — the spiritualised medium of departed mud, through which the 
dead citizens of London probably tread, in the Hades whither they are 
translated. ' ' — Hawthorne. Note-books. 

But if the fogs are not too thick an artist will find an 
additional charm in them, and will remember with pleasure 
the beautiful effects upon the river, when only the grand 
features remain, and the ignominious details are blotted 
out ; or when " the eternal mist around St. Paul's is turned 
to a glittering haze." In fact, if the capitals of Europe are 
considered, London is one of the most picturesque — far 



XVI INTR OD UCTOR Y. 

more so than Paris or Vienna ; incomparably more so than 
St. Petersburg, BerHn, Dresden, Munich, Brussels, or 
Madrid. 

No town in Europe is better supplied with greenery than 
London : even in the City almost every street has its tree. 
And pity often is ill bestowed upon Londoners by dwellers 
in the country, for the fact is all the best attributes of the 
country are to be found in the town. The squares of the 
West End, with their high raiHngs, and ill-kept gardens, are 
certainly ugly enough, but the parks are full of beauty, and 
there are walks in Kensington Gardens which in early 
spring present a maze of loveliness. Lately too, since 
window gardening has become the fashion, each house has 
its boxes of radiant flowers, enlivening the dusty stonework 
or smoke-blackened bricks, and seeming all the more cheer- 
ful from their contrast. Through the markets too all that 
is best in country produce flows into the town : the straw- 
berries, the cherries, the vegetables, are always finer there 
than at the places where they are grown. Milton, who 
changed his house oftener than anyone else, and knew 
more parts of the metropolis intimately, thus apostrophizes 
it— 

" Oh city, founded by Dardanian hands, 

"Whose towering front the circling reahii . commands, 

Too blest abode ! no loveliness we see, 

In all the earth, but it abounds in thee." 

There is a certain class of minds, and a large one, which 
stagnates in the country, and which finds the most luxurious 
stimulant in the ceaseless variety of London, where there is 
always so much to be seen and so much to be heard, and 
these make so much to be thought of. 



INTR OD UCTOR Y. XV li 

" I have passed all my days in London, until I have formed as many 
and as intense local attachments, as any of you mountaineers can have 
(iune with dead nature. The lighted shops of the Strand and Pleet 
Street; the innumerable trades, tradesmen, and customers, coaches, 
wagfons, playhouses ; all the bustle and wickedness round about 
Covent Garden ; the watchmen, drunken scenes, rattles ; — life awake, 
if you awake, at all hours of the night ; the impossibility of being dull 
in Fleet Street ; the crowds, the very dirt and mud, the sun shining 
upon houses and pavements, the print-shops, the old book-stalls, 
parsons cheapening books, coffee-houses, steams of soups from 
kitchens, the pantomimes — London itself a pantomime and a mas- 
querade — all these thnigs work themselves into my mind, and feed me 
\\4thout a power of satiating me. The wonder of these sights impels 
me into night-walks about her crowded streets, and I often shed tears in 
the motley Strand from fulness of joy at so much life. ... I con- 
sider the clouds above me but as a roof beautifully painted, but unable 
to satisfy the mind ; and at last, like the pictures of the apartment of a 
v^onnoisseur, unable to afford him any longer a pleasure. So fading 
upon me, from disuse, have been the beauties of Nature, as they have 
been confinedly called ; so ever fresh, and green, and warm, are all the 
inventions of men, and assemblies of men in this great city." — Charles 
Lamh to Wordsworth, Jaji. 30, 1801. 

Many derivations are given for the name London. Some 
derive it from Lhwn-dinas, the " City in the Wood ; " others 
from Llongdinas, the " City of Ships ; " others from Llyn- 
dun, the " Hill Fortress by the Lake." Geoffrey of Mon- 
mouth says that Brute "builded this citie" about a.c. 1008. 
From the time at which it is reported to have been 
founded by Brute, says Brayley, " even fable itself is silent 
in regard to its history, until the century immediately pre- 
ceding the Roman invasion." * Then King Lud is said to 
have encircled it with walls, and adorned it " with fayre 
buildings and towers." The remains found certainly prove 
the existence of a British city on the site before the Lon- 
dinium, or Colonia Augusta, spoken of by Tacitus and 

* Londiniana. 
VOL. I. b 



XVIU INTRODUCTORY, 

Ammianus Marcellinus, which must have been founded by 
the Roman expedition under Aulus Plautius in a.d. 43. 
Tacitus mentions that it was already the great " mart of 
trade and commerce " and the " chief residence of mer- 
chants," when the revolt of the Iceni (occurred under 
Boadicea in a.d. 61, in which it was laid waste with fire 
and sword. It had however risen from its ashes in the 
time of Severus (a.d. 193 — 211), when Tacitus describes 
it as *' illustrious for the vast number of merchants who 
resorted to it, for its extensive commerce, and for tlie 
abundance of every kind of commodity which it could 
supply." * 

Stow says that the walls of London were built by Helena, 
mother of Constantine the Great, ''about the year of Christ 
306," at any rate there is little doubt that they were erected in 
the fourth century. They were rather more than two miles 
in circumference, defended by towers, and marked at the 
principal points by the great gates, Aldgate, Bishopsgate, 
Cripplegate, Aldersgate, and Ludgate. The best fragments 
of the old wall remaining are to be seen opposite Sion College, 
and in the churchyard of St. Giles, Cripplegate . there is also 
a fragment in St. Martin's Court on Ludgate Hill. Quantities 
of Roman antiquities, tessellated pavements, urns, vases, 
&c., have been found from time to time within this circuit, 
especially in digging the foundations of the Goldsmiths' 
Hall, and of the Hall of Commerce in Threadneedle Street. 
For a long time these remains were carelessly kept or not 
kept at all, but latterly some of them have been collected 
in the admirable little museum under the Guildhall. Several 
Roman cemeteries have been discovered, one of them by 

* Annali. Lib. xiv. c. 33. 



INTR CD UCTOR Y. xi x 

Sir Christopher Wren when he was laying the foundation 
of the new St. Paul's. All the excavations show that 
modern London is at least fifteen feet higher than the 
London of the Romans, which has been buried by the same 
inexplicable process which entombed the Roman Forum, 
and covered many of its temples with earth up to the 
capitals of the columns. 

Very little is known of London in Saxon t'mes except 
that St. Paul's Cathedral was founded by Ethell-ert, in 6io, 
in the time of King Sebert. Bede, who mentions this, 
describes London as an " emporium of many nations who 
arrived thither by land and sea." London was the strong- 
hold of the Danes, but was successfully besieged by Alfred, 
and Athelstan had a palace here. His successor Ethelred 
the Unready was driven out again by the Danes under 
Sweyn. On the death of Sweyn, Ethelred returned, and 
his son Edmund Ironside was the first monarch crowned in 
the capital. London grew greatly in importance under 
Edward the Confessor, who built the Palace and Abbey o^ 
Westminster, and it made a resistance to the Conqueroj 
which was for some time effectual, though, op. the submis 
sion of the clergy, he was presented with the keys of th( 
City and crowned at the Confessor's tomb. He /mmediatel} 
tried to conciliate the citizens, by granting them the charter 
which, written in the Saxon language, on a str\p of vellum, 
is still preserved amongst the City archives. 

"William the King greeteth William the Bishop ana Godfrey the 
Portreve, and all the burgesses within London, both Trench ano 
English. And I declare that i grant you all to be law-wot tLy asi y 
were in King Edward's days. And I will that every chilrl h& hi" 
father's heir after his father's days. And I will not suffer thai arvy 'nau 
do you wrong. God preseive you." 



XX INTR OD UCTOR Y. 

The chief events in the after story of London, its 
insurrections, its pageants, its martyrdoms, its conspira- 
cies, its pestilences, its Great Fire, its religious agitations, 
its political excitements, are all noticed in describing 
those parts of the town with which they are especially 
connected. 

Fuller says that London *' is the second city in Christen- 
dome for greatnesse, and the first for good government." 
Its chief officer under the Saxons was called the Portreeve. 
After the Conquest the French word Maire, from Major, 
was introduced. We first hear of a Mayor of London in 
the reign of Henry IL His necessary qualifications are, 
that he shall be free of one of the City Companies, have 
served as Sheriff, and be an Alderman at the time of his 
election.* The name of Alderman is derived from the title 
of a Saxon noble, eald meaning old, ealder elder. It 
is applied to the chief officer of a ward or guild and each 
Alderman of London takes his name from a ward. The 
City Companies or Merchant Guilds, though branches of the 
Corporation, have each a distinct government and peculiar 
Hberties and immunities granted in special charters. Each 
Company has a Master and other officers, and separate 
Halls for their business or banquets. The oldest of the 
Companies is the Weavers, with a charter of 1164. Then 
come the Parish Clerks, instituted in 1232, and the Saddlers, 
in 1280. The Bakers, Goldsmiths, Skinners, Grocers, Car- 
penters, and Fishmongers, all date from the fourteenth 
century. There are ninety-one Companies, but of these 
twelve are the most important, viz. — 

* The Lord Mayor is elected on Michaelmas Day, but " Lord Mayoi's Day " 
is November o. 



INTR OD UCTOR Y. xxi 



Mercers 


Merchant Tailors 


Grocers 


Haberdashers 


Drapers 


Salters 


Fishmongers 


Ironmongers 


Goldsmiths 


Vintruers 


Skinners 


Clothworkers. 



In the second year of Elizabeth the pictorial map of 
Ralph Aggas was published, which shows how little in those 
days London had increased beyond its early boundaries. 
Outside Aldgate, Bishopsgate, and Cripplegate, all was still 
complete country. ** The Spital Fyeld " (Spitalfields) and 
" Finsburie Fyeld " were archery grounds : Moorfields was 
a marsh. St. Giles, Cripplegate, was the church of a little 
hamlet beyond the walls. Farther west a few houses in 
"Little Britanne" and Cock Lane clustered around the 
open space of " Schmyt Fyeld," black with the fires of 
recent martyrdoms. A slender thread of humble dwellings 
straggled along the road which led by Holbourne Bridge 
across the Fleet to St. Andrew's Church and Ely Place, 
but ceased altogether after " Holbourne Hill " till the road 
reached the desolate village and leper-hospital of St. Giles- 
in-the-Fields. A wide expanse of open pasture-land, only 
broken by Drury House and the Convent Garden of West- 
minster, extended southwards from St. Giles's to the Strand, 
where the houses of the great nobles Hned the passage of 
the sovereign from the City to the small royal city and great 
palace of Westminster. From Charing Cross, St. Martin's 
Lane and the Haymarket were hedge-girt roads leading 
into a solitude, and there was scarcely any house westwards 
except the Hospital of St. James, recently turned into a 
palace. 

After the time of Elizabeth, London began to grow 



xxu INTR OD UCTOR F. 

rapidly, though Elizabeth herself and her immediate suc- 
cessors, dreading the power of such multitudes in the neigh- 
bourhood of the Court, did all they could to check it. In 
July, '580, all persons were prohibited from building houses 
within three miles of any of the City gates, and, in 1602, 
a proclamation was made for *' restraining the increase of 
buildings," and the "voyding of inmates" in the cities of 
London and Westminster, and for three miles round. But 
in spite of this, in spite of the Plague which destroyed 
68,596 people, and the Fire which destroyed 13,200 houses, 
the great city continued to grow. Latterly it has increased 
so rapidly westwards, that it is impossible to define the 
limits of the town. It has been travelling west more or less 
ever since the time of the Plantagenets ; — from the City to 
the Strand, and to Canonbury and Clerkenwell ; then, under 
the Stuart kings, to the more northern parts of the parish of 
St. Clement Danes and to Whitehall : then, under William 
III. and Anne, to Bloomsbury and Soho : under the early 
Georges, to the Portland and Portman estates, then to the 
Grosvenor estates, and lastly to South Kensington. By its later 
increase the town has enormously increased the wealth of 
nine peers, to whom the greater portion of the soil upon 
which it has been built belongs— />. the Dukes of Portland, 
Bedford, and Westminster; the Marquises of Exeter, 
Salisbury, Northampton, and the Marquis Camden ; the 
Earl Craven and Lord Portman. No one can tell where 
the West End will be next year. It is always moving into 
the country and never arriving there. Generally Fashion 
"is only gentility moving away from vulgarity and afraid 
of being overtaken by it," but in this case it is also a 
perpetual flight before the smoke, which still always drives 



INTR OD UCTOR Y. xxiii 

westwards, so that when the atmosphere is thickest in 
Brompton, the sky is often blue and the air pure in Ratcliff 
Highway. 

In all the changes of generations of men and manners in 
London, the truth of the proverb, " Birds of a feather flock 
together," has been attested by the way in which the 
members of the same nationalities and those who have fol- 
lowed the same occupations have inhabited the same 
district. Thus, French live in the neighbourhood of 
Leicester Square and Soho, Italians in Hatton Garden, and 
Germans in the east of London. Thus^ Lawyers live in 
Lincoln's Inn and the Temple ; Surgeons and Dentists in 
George Street and Burlington Street ; Doctors in Harley 
Street; and retired Indians in Cavendish Square and 
Portman Square, with their adjoining streets, which have 
obtained the name of Little Bengal. Thus, too, you 
would go to look for Booksellers in Paternoster Row, 
Clockmakers in Clerkenwell, Butchers in Newgate and 
Smithfield, Furniture Dealers in Tottenham Court Road, 
Hatmakers in Southwark, Tanners and Leather-dressers 
in Bermondsey, Bird and Bird-cage sellers near the Seven 
Dials, Statuaries in the Euston Road, and Artists at the 
Boltons. 

The poorest parts of London also have always been its 
eastern and north-eastern parishes, and the district about 
Soho and St. Giles-in-the-Fields. So much has been said 
and written of the appearance of poverty and crime which 
these streets present, that those who visit them will be sur- 
prised to find at least outward decency and a tolerably 
thriving population ; though of course the words of Cowley 
are true — 



XXIV INTRODUCTORY. 

*• The monster London, 

« « * « • 

Let but thy wicked men from out thee go, 
And all the fools that crowd thee so, 
Even thou, who dost thy millions boast, 
A village less than Islington wilt grow 
A solitude almost." 

The great landmarks are the same in London now that they 
were in the time of the Plantagenets : the Tower is still the 
great fortress ; London Bridge is still the great causeway 
for traffic across the river; St. Paul's and Westminster 
Abbey are still the great churches ; and Westminster Palace 
is only transferred from the sovereign to the legislature. The 
City still shows by its hills — Ludgate Hill, Comhill, and 
Tower Hill — why it was chosen as the early capital. One 
feature however of old London is annihilated — all the smaller 
brooks or rivers which fed the Thames are buried and lost 
to view. The Eye Bourne, the Old Bourne, and the Wall 
Brook, though they still burrow beneath the town, seem to 
have left nothing but their names. Even the Fleet, of which 
there are so many unflattering descriptions in the poets of 
the last century, is entirely arched over, and it is difficult to 
believe that there can ever have been a time when Londoners 
saw ten or twelve ships at once sailing up to Holborn 
Bridge, or still more that they can have gone up as high as 
Baggnigge Wells Road, where the discovery of an anchor 
seems to testify to their presence. Where the aspect is 
entirely changed the former character of London sites is 
often pleasantly recorded for us in the names of the streets. 
" Hatton Garden," " Baldwin's Gardens," and " Whetstone 
Park " keep up a reminiscence of the rural nature of a now 
crowded district as late as the time of the Stuarts, though 



INTR OD UCTOR V. XX v 

with "Lincoln's Inn Fields," and "Great and Little Turnstile." 
they have a satirical effect as applied to the places which 
now belong to them. In the West End, Brook Street, 
Green Street, Farm Street, Hill Street, and Hay Hill, 
commemorate the time, two hundred years ago, when the 
Eye Bourne was a crystal rivulet running down hill to West- 
minster through the green hay-fields of Miss Mary Davies. 

Few would re-echo Malcolm's exclamation, "Thank God, 
old London was burnt," even if it were quite true, which it 
is not. The Fire destroyed the greater part of London, 
but gave so much work to the builders that the small 
portioxi unburnt remained comparatively untouched till the 
tide ot fashion had flowed too far westwards to make any 
systematic rebuilding worth while. It is over the Czfy of 
London, as the oldest part of the town, that its chief 
interest still hovers. Those who go there in search of its 
treasures will be stunned on week-days by the tourbillon of 
its movement, and the constant eddies at all the great cross- 
ings in the whirlpool of its business life, such as no other 
town in Europe can show. But this also has its charms, 
and no one has seen London properly who has not watched 
the excited crowds at the Stock Exchange, threaded the 
labyrinth of the Bank, wondered at the intricate arrange- 
ments of the Post Office, attended a Charity Children's 
service at St. Paul's, beheld the Lord Mayor drive by in his 
coach ; stood amid the wigged lawyers and whirling pigeons 
of the Guildhall ; and struggled through Cheapside, Corn- 
hill, and Great Tower Street with the full tide of a week- 
day. 

But no one can see the City properly who does not walk 
in it, and no one can walk in it comfortably except on a 



XXVI INTR OD UCTOR Y, 

Sunday. On that day it is thoroughly enjoyable. The 
great chimneys have ceased smoking, the sky is blue, the 
trees look green, but that which is most remarkable is, the 
streets are empty. What becomes of all the people it is 
impossible to imagine ; there are not only no carriages, 
there are scarcely any foot-passengers : one may saunter 
along the pavement with no chance of being jostled, and 
walk down the middle of the street without any fear of being 
run over. Then alone can the external features of the City 
be studied, and there is a great charm in the oddity of 
having it all to one's self, as well as in the quietude. Then 
we see how, even in the district which was devastated by 
the Fire, several important fragments escaped, and how the 
portion which was unburnt is filled with precious memorials 
of an earlier time. Scarcely less interesting also, and, 
though not always beautiful, of a character exceedingly 
unusual in England, are the numerous buildings erected 
immediately after the Fire in the reign of Charles II. The 
treasures which we have to look for are often very obscure 
— a sculptured gateway, a panelled room, a storm-beaten 
tower, or an incised stone — and in themselves might scarcely 
be worth a tour of inspection ; but in a city where so many 
millions of inhabitants have Hved and passed away, where 
so many great events of the world's history have occurred, 
there is scarcely one of these long-Hved remnants which has 
not some strange story to tell in which it bears the character 
of the only existing witness. The surroundings, too, are 
generally picturesque, and only those who study them and 
dwell upon them can reaHse the interest of the desolate 
tombs in the City churches, the loveliness of the plane- 
trees in their fresh spring green rising amid the smoky 



INTR ODUCrOR V, xxvii 

houses in those breathing spaces left by the Fire in the old 
City churchyards where the churches were never rebuilt, or 
the soft effects of aerial perspective from the wharfs of the 
Thames or amid the many-masted shipping in the still 
reaches of " the Pool," where the great White Tower of the 
Conqueror still frowns at the beautiful church built in 
honour of a poor ferry-woman, 

One hundred and seven churches were destroyed in the 
Fire, and only twenty-two were preserved. Of these many 
have since been pulled down, and there are now only 
thirteen churches in existence which date before the time of 
Charles II. Those which were built immediately after the 
Fire, however, are scarcely less interesting, for though Wren 
had more work than he could possibly attend to properly, 
he never forgot that the greatest acquirement of architecture 
is the art of interesting^ and the inexhaustible power of his 
imagination displayed in his parish churches is not less 
astonishing than his genius evinced at St. PauFs. He 
built fifty-three churches in London, mostly classic ; in one 
or two, as St. Mary Aldermary and St. Alban, Wood Street, 
he has attempted Gothic, and in these he has failed. Almost 
all the exteriors depend for ornament upon their towers, 
which are seldom well seen individually on account of their 
(Confined positions, but which are admirable in combination. 
The best is undoubtedly that of Bow Church; then St. 
Magnus, St. Bride, St. Vedast, and St. Martin deserve 
attention. The saints to whom the old City churches are 
dedicated are generally the old Enghsh saints honoured 
before the Reformation, whose comparative popularity may 
be gathered from the number of buildings placed under the 
protection of each. Thus there were four churches dedi 



XXVlll INTR OD UCTOR Y. 

cated to St. Botolph, four to St. Benet, three to St. Leonard, 
three to St. Dunstan, and two to St. Giles, while St. Ethel- 
burga, St. Etheldreda, St. Alban, St. Vedast, St. Swithin, 
St. Edmund, and St. Bridget, had each their single church. 
Twelve of the City churches have been wantonly destroyed 
in our own time, and, though perhaps not beautiful in them- 
selves, the thinning of the forest of towers and steeples, 
which was such a characteristic of ancient London, is 
greatly to be deplored. The interiors of the churches 
derive their chief interest from their monuments, but they 
are also often rich in Renaissance carvings and ironwork. 
They almost always have high pews, in which those who 
wish to attend the service may share the feelings of the 
little girl who, when taken to church for the first time, 
complained that she had been shut up in a closet, and 
made to sit upon a shelf. 

Interesting specimens of domestic architecture before the 
Fire are to be found in the neighbourhood of Smithfield, in 
Aldersgate, Bishopsgate, and their surroundings. Crosby 
Hall and Sir Paul Pindar's House in the City ; the Water 
Gate of York House ; and Holland House in Kensington, 
are the most remarkable examples which come within the 
limits of our excursions. 

When the new London arose after the Fire, the per- 
sistence of the citizens who jealously clung to their old 
landmarks caused the configuration of the former city to be 
observed, to the destruction of the grand designs of renova- 
tion proposed by Evelyn and Wren, but to the preservation 
of many old associations, and the rescuing of much historic 
interest from oblivion. The domestic buildings which were 
then erected are no less interesting than the churches. 



INTR OD UCTOR F. XXIX 

including as they do many of the noble old Halls of the 
City Companies, and private houses built by Wren. With 
the landing of William III. the Dutch style of regular 
windows and flat-topped uniform brick fronts was intro- 
duced, which gradually deteriorated from the comfortable 
quaint houses of Anne's time with the carved wooden 
porches which may be seen in Queen Anne's Gate, to the 
hideous monotony of Wimpole Street and Baker Street. 
Under the brothers Adam and their followers there was 
a brief revival of good taste, and ah their works are 
deserving of study — masterly alike in proportion and in 
delicacy of detail. In fact, though the buildings of the 
British Classical revival were often cold and formal, they 
were never bad. 

Some people maintain that Art is dead in England, others 
that it lives and grows daily. Certainly street architec- 
ture appeared to be in a hopeless condition, featureless, 
colourless, almost formless, till a few years ago, but, 
since then, there has been an unexpected resurrection. 
Dorchester House is a noble example of the Florentine 
style, really grandiose and imposing, and the admirable 
work of Norman Shaw at Lowther Lodge seems to have 
given an impulse to brick and terra-cotta decoration, which 
has been capitally followed out in several new houses in 
Cheapside, Oxford Street, Bond Street, and South Audley 
Street, and which is the beginning of a school of architec- 
ture for the reign of Victoria, as distinctive as that of Inigo 
Jones and Wren was for the time of the Stuarts. The more 
English architects study the brick cities of Northern 
Italy and learn that the best results are brought about by 
the simplest means, and that the greatest charm of a street 



XXX INTR OD UCTOR Y. 

is its irregularity, the more beautiful and picturesque will 
our London become. 

Besides the glorious collection in its National Gallery, 
London possesses many magnificent pictures in the great 
houses of its nobles, though few of these are shown to the 
public with the liberality displayed in continental cities. In 
the West End, however, people are more worth seeing than 
pi(tures, and foreigners and Americans will find endless 
sources of amusement in Rotten Row — in the Exhibitions — 
and in a levee at St. James's. 

" The Courts of two countries do not so differ from one another, as 
the Court and the City, in their pecuhar ways ol life and conversation. 
In short, the inhabitants of St. James's, notwithstanding they live under 
the same laws, and speak the same language, are a distinct people 
from those of Cheapside." — Addison. 

"In the wonderful extent and variety of London, men of curious 
inquiry may see such modes of life as very few could ever imagine. . . . 
The intellectual man is struck with it as comprehending the whole 
of human life in all its variety, the contemplation of which is inex- 
haustible." — BoswelVs Life ofjohnson. 

If a Stranger wishes at once to gain the most vivid im- 
pression of the wealth, the variety, and the splendour of 
London, he should follow the economical course of " taking 
a penny boat " — embarking in a steamer — at Westminster 
Bridge, descend the Thames to London Bridge, and ascend 
the Monument. The descent of the river through London 
will give a more powerful idea of its constant movement of 
life than anything else can : the water covered with heavily 
laden barges and churned by crowded steamboats: the* 
trains hissing across the iron railway bridges : the numerous 
bridges of stone with their concourse of traffic : the tall 
chimneys : the hundreds of church, towers with the great 



JNTR OD UCTOR Y, XXXI 

dome of St. Paul's dominating the whole : the magnificent 
embankment : the colossal Somerset House : the palaces 
on the shores jostled by buildings of such a different 
nature, weather-stained wooden sheds, huge warehouses 
from whose chasm-like windows great cranes are discharg- 
ing merchandise, or raising it from the boats beneath: 
and each side artery giving a fresh glimpse into the bustle 
of a street. 

Throughout its long career, London has owed its chief 
prosperity, as it probably owed its existence, to the Thames, 
no longer here the " fishful river" of the old records, but 
ever the great inlet and outlet of the Hfe of London, " which 
easeth, adorneth, inricheth, feedeth, and fortifieth it." 

" As a wise king first settles fruitful peace 
In his own realms ; and with their rich increase 
Seeks wars abroad, and then in triumph brings, 
The spoils of kingdoms and the crown of kings, 
So Thames to London." 

Sir y. Denham. 

The Thames is still the greatest highway in London, 
formerly it was the only highway ; for even the best streets 
were comparatively mere byeways, where the men rode 
upon horseback, and the ladies were carried in horse- 
litters. It is a proof of the constant use of the river even 
in the time of Charles II., that Pepys makes a point oi 
mentioning in his Diary whenever he went to a place by 
land. The Watermen then used to keep time with their 
oars to songs, with the chorus — 

" Heave and how, rumbelow," 

like the gondoliers at Venice. Howell, writing in 1645, 
says that the river Thames has not her fellow " if regard be 



xxxil INTRODUCTORY, 

had to those forests of masts that are perpetually upon her ; 
the variety of smaller wooden bottoms playing up and 
down ; the stately palaces that are built upon both sides of 
her banks so thick ; which made divers foreign ambassadors 
affirm that the most glorious sight, take land and water 
together, was to come upon a high tide from Gravesend, 
and shoot the bridge to Westminster." It is a proof of the 
little need there was to provide for any except water traffic, 
that except London Bridge there was no bridge over the 
river in London until Westminster Bridge was built in the 
middle of the last century. All the existing bridges date 
from the present century. Hackney coaches were not 
invented till the seventeenth century, and these excited the 
utmost fury in the minds of the Watermen, who had hitherto 
had the monopoly of all means of public locomotion. 
Taylor, the Water Poet, who died in 1654, writes — 

" After a mask or a play at the Court, even the very earth quakes 
and trembles, the casements shatter, tatter, and clatter, and such a con- 
fused noise is made, so that a man can neither sleep, speak, hear, write, 
or eat his dinner or supper quiet for them." 

The first Hackney Coach stand, which existed till 1853, 
was established in front of St. Mary-le-Strand by Captain 
Baily in 1634, in which year also Strafford's Letters relate 
that " sometimes there are twenty of them together, which 
disperse up and down," and that " they and others are to 
be had everywhere as Watermen are to be had at the water- 
side." In the same year the Watermen complained vehe- 
mently to the king that the hackney coaches were "not 
confined to going north and south, but that their plying 
and carrying of people east and west, to and fro, in the 
streetes and places abutting upon the river doth utterly 



INTRODUCTORY, xxxiii 

ruinate your petitioners." In 1635 the hackney-coaches 
were Hmited. In June 1636 the coachmen petitioned to 
be made into a corporation, so that one hundred might 
have coaches and pay the king a hundred a year for the 
right. This number gradually increased, but has only been 
unlimited since 1833. 

In their early existence hackney-coaches had not only 
the Watermen to contend with. Prince Charles and the 
Duke of Buckingham had brought back with them from 
Spain several Sedan chairs, and, though these at first excited 
the utmost contempt, people " loathing that men should be 
brought to as servile a condition as horses," their compara- 
tive safety on such rugged pavements as the streets were 
afflicted with in those days soon made them popular, and 
they continued to be the fashion for a century and a half. 
They were not, however, without their disadvantages. 
Swift describes the position of a London dandy in a 
shower— 

" Box'd in a chair the beau impatient sits, 
While spouts run clattering o'er the roof by fits ; 
And ever and anon with frightful din 
The leather sounds ; — he trembles from within." 

The discomforts of the streets, however, then made all 
means of locomotion unpleasant : thus Gay says — 

" Let others in the jolting coach confide, 
Or in the leaky boat the Thames divide, 
Or, box'd within the chair, contemn the street, 
And trust their safety to another's feet : 
Still let me walk." 

Not only are the pavements improved, and the streets 
lighted by gas, but we have now every facility of transport. 

VOL. I. c 



XXXIV INTR OD UCTOR Y. 

Cabs are unlimited, and Hansom-cabs, so named from their 
inventor. Omnibuses, only introduced from Paris in 1830, 
now run in every direction, and transport those who are 
not above using them, for immense distances and very small 
fares. More expensive, and more disagreeable, but still 
very convenient for those who are in a hurry, is the under- 
ground Metropohtan Railway, which makes a circle round 
London from Cannon Street (the " Mansion House ") to 
Aldgate, with stations at all the principal points upon the 
way. 

A pleasant way of learning one's London, as of seeing 
Rome, is to follow some consecutive guiding thread, such 
as the life of a particular person, and seeing what it shows 
us. The life of Milton, for example, would lead from his 
birthplace in Bread Street and his school at St. Paul's, 
to the sites of his houses in St. Bride's Churchyard, 
Holborn, Spring Gardens, Scotland Yard, Petty France, 
Bartholomew Close, and Jewin Street, and so by the place 
of his death in Bunhill Fields to his grave at St. Giles's, 
Cripplegate. 

No one can consider the subject without regretting that 
no official care-taker is appointed for the historical 
memorials of London, without whose consent the house of 
Milton in Petty France could not have been swept away, 
and whose influence might be exerted to save at least the 
picturesque tower of the church which commemorates his 
baptism, with Dryden's inscription; who might have inter- 
posed to save the Tabard Inn, and have prevented the 
unnecessary destruction of St. AnthoHn's Tower : who, 
when a time-honoured burial-ground is turned into a recrea- 
tion-ground, might suggest that, as in France, advantage 



INTR OD UCTOR Y. xxx V 

should be taken of all the sinuosities and irregularities which 
gave the place its picturesqueness, instead of levelling them, 
and overlaying them with yellow gravel and imitation rock- 
work, ruthlessly tearing up tombstones from the graves to 
which they belong, and planting paltry flowers and stunted 
evergreens in their place, as in the historic though now 
ruined burial-ground of St. Pancras. " Les Monuments 
sont les crampons qui unissent une generation k une autre ; 
conservez ce qu'ont vu vos peres," is well said by Joubert 
in his " Pensees." 

Dwellers in the West End never cease to regret the need 
of the street scavengers, who in even the smaller towns of 
France and Germany would be employed daily to gather 
up and carry away the endless litter of orange-peel and 
paper which is allowed to lie neglected for months, ^lope- 
lessly vulgarising the grass and flowers of London parks 
and squares, — a small but contemptible disgrace to our city, 
which is much commented upon by foreigners. 

Another point which greatly requires a competent and 
well-informed supervision is the nomenclature of the streets. 
Almost all the older blocks of houses have possessed an 
inmate or seen an event they might commemorate, and new 
streets are usually built on land connected with something 
which might give them a name ; so that it is simply con- 
temptible that there should be 95 streets in London called 
King; 99 Queen ; 78 Princes; 109 George; 119 John ; 91 
Charles ; 87 James ; 58 Thomas ; 47 Henry ; 54 Alfred ; 
88 William ; 57 Elizabeth; 151 Church; 69 Chapel; 129 
Union; 166 New; 90 North and South; 50 East and 
West; 127 York; 87 Gloucester; 56 Cambridge; 76 
Brunswick ; 70 Devonshire ; 60 Norfolk ; 50 Richmond, &c. 



xxxvi INTR OD UCTOR V. 

The Artist in London will find much less difficulty than 
he anticipates in sketching in the streets, as people are 
generally too busy to stop to look at him. But, if accus- 
tomed to the facihties and liberality met with in Continental 
cities, he will be quite wearied out with the petty obstacles 
thrown in his way by every one who can make an obstacle 
to throw. From the Benchers of the Temple to the humblest 
churchwarden, each official demands to the utmost, orders 
signed and countersigned, so that no jot of the little meed 
of homage to their individual self-importance can by any 
possibility be overlooked. 

There are many who, amid the fatigues of society, might 
find the utmost refreshment of mind and body in mornings 
spent amid the tombs at Westminster ; the pictures of the 
City Companies, the Learned Societies or the great houses 
of the West End ; but most of all in rambles through the 
ancient bye-ways of the City. There are many more, espe- 
cially young men, for whom time in London hangs very 
heavy, and to whom the perpetual lounge in the Park must 
end by becoming wearisome and monotonous, and for these 
a new mine of interest and pleasure is only waiting to be 
worked. If they will take even the Walks indicated in 
these volumes, they can scarcely fail to end them by agree- 
ing with Dr. Johnson that " he who is tired of London is 
tired of existence." To them especially the author would 
say, in the words of Shakspeare — 

" I pray you, let us satisfy our eyes 
With the memorials, and the things of fame. 
That do renown this city." 



CHAPTER I. 
THE STRAND. 

DR. JOHNSON said, " I think the full tide of existence 
is at Charing Cross." It is the first point which 
meets the eyes of the traveller on arriving from the Con- 
tinent, and it may well be taken as a centre in an explana- 
tion of London. 

In 1266 a village on this site was spoken of as Cher- 
ringe, where William of Radnor, Bishop of Landaff, asked 
permission of Henry III. to take up his abode in a 
hermitage during his visits to London. This earlier 
mention of the name unfortunately renders it impossible to 
derive it, as has been often done, from La Chere Rei?ie, 
Eleanor, wife of Edward I., " mulier pia, modesta, miseri- 
cors, Anglicorum omnium amatrix," to whom her husband 
erected here the last of the nine crosses which marked the 
resting-places of the beloved corpse in 1291 on its way from 
Lincoln to Westminster. More probably the name is 
derived from the Saxon word Charan, to turn, both the road 
and river making a bend here. The other crosses in memory 
of Eleanor were at Lincoln, Northampton, Stoney Stratford, 
Woburn, Dunstable, St. Albans, Waltham, and Cheap ; and 

VOL. I. B 



« WALKS IN LONDON, 

of these only those of Northampton and Waltham remain. 
That of Charing was the most magnificent of all : it was de- 
signed by Richard and Roger de Coverdale, with figures by 
Alexander of Abingdon. The modern cross erected m 
front of Charing Cross Railway Station is intended as a 
reproduction of it. The old cross was pulled down in 
1647 by the Puritans, amid great lamentations from the 
opposite party. 

** Methinks the common-council should 
Of it have taken pity, 
'Cause good old Cross, it always stood 

So firmly to the City. 
Since crosses you so much disdain, 

Faith, if I were as you. 
For fear the king should rule again, 
I'd pull down Tyburn too." 

The Dounefall of Charing Cross, 

The site of the cross was the spot chosen in 1660 
for the execution of the Regicides. Hither (October 13) 
Major-General Thomas Harrison was brought to the 
gallows in a sledge, " with a sweet smiling countenance," 
saying that he was going to suffer for " the most glorious 
cause that ever was in the world." " As he was about to 
die," having his face towards the Banqueting House at 
Whitehall, " one, in derision, called to him, and said, * Where 
is your good old cause ? ' He, with a cheerful smile, clapt 
his hand on his breast, and said, ' Here it is. and I am going 
to seal it with my blood.' " Three days after, Hugh Peters, 
who had preached against Charles I. at St. Margaret's as 
" the great Barabbas at Windsor," with Cook the republican 
counsel, suffered on the same spot, and afterwards eight 
othei of the regicides. Here, where his murderers had 



STATUE OF CHARLES /. 3 

perished, the Statue of Charles /.,* the noblest statue in 
London, was set up in 1674. The figure of the king is 
what it professes to be — 7'oyal^ and gains by being attired, 
not in the conventional Roman costume, but in a dress 
such as he wore, and by being seated on a saddle such 
as he used. It is the work of Hubert Le Sueur, and was 
originally ordered by the Lord Treasurer Weston for his 




;:^- -?-^*^'— '"-Py^^^^: 



At Charing Cross. 



gardens at Roehampton. Walpole narrates that it was 
sold by the Parliament to one John Rivet, a brazier, 
living at the Dial near Holborn Conduit, with strict orders 
to break it to pieces. Instead of doing this he con- 
cealed it in the vaults under the Church of St. Paul, Covent 
Garden, and making some brass handles for knives, and pro- 
ducing them as fragments of the statue, realised a large sum 

* Only the names of still existing {1877) monuments and buildings are printed in 
italics. 



4 WALKS IN LONDON, 

by their sale, as well to royalists who bought them from love 
of the king, as to rebels who saw in them a mark of their 
triumph. At the Restoration the statue was mounted upon 
its present beautiful pedestal, which is the work of Joshua 
Marshall J Master Mason to the Crown, and which, till 
recently, was always wreathed with oak on the 29th of May, 
the anniversary of the Restoration. The metal round 
the fore-foot of the horse bears the inscription HVBER(T) 
LE SVEVR (FE)CIT. 1633. On the erection of the statue, 
Waller wrote the lines — 

♦* That the first Charles does here in triumph ride ; 
See his son reign, where he a martyr died ; 
And people pay that reverence, as they pass 
(Which then he wanted !), to the sacred brass ; 
Is not the effect of gratitude alone. 
To which we owe the statue and the stone. 
But heaven this lasting monument has wrought, 
That mortalls may eternally be taught, 
Rebellion, though successful, is but vain ; 
And kings, so killed, rise conquerors again. 
This truth the royal image does proclaim, 
Loud as the trumpet of surviving fame." 

Close beside the statue was the pillory where Edmund 
Curll the bookseller, " embalmed in the bitter herbs of the 
Dunciad,"* was punished. We may also give a thought to the 
brave old Balmerino as asking here from his guards the 
indulgence of being allowed to stop to buy " honey-blobs," 
as the Scotch call gooseberries, on his last journey to the 
Tower after his condemnation. + 

Harry Vane the Younger lived at Charing Cross, next 
door to Northumberland House. Isaac Barrow, the mathe- 

• Alibone, " Dictionary of English and American Authors." 

♦ Walpole to Montague, August 2, 1746. 



CHARING CROSS, 5 

matician and divine, called by Charles II. "an unfair 
preacher, because he exhausted every subject," died here 
over a saddler's shop (1677) in his forty-seventh year. In 
Hartshorn Lane, close by, Hved the mother of Ben Jonson, 
and hence she sent her boy " to a private school in the 
Church of St. Martin in the Fields."* 

** Though I cannot with all my industrious inquiry find him in his 
cradle, I can fetch him from long-coats. When a little child he hved 
m Hartshorn Lane near Charing Cross, where his mother married a 
bricklayer for her second husband." — Fuller's Worthies. 

The Swan at Charing Cross was the scene of Ben Jon- 
son's droll extempore grace before James I., for which the 
king gave him a hundred pounds. The fact that proclama- 
tions were formerly made at Charing Cross, giving rise to 
the allusion in Swift — 

" Where all that passes inter nos 
May be proclaimed at Charing Cross," 

has passed into a byword. 



The most interesting approach to the City of London is 
by that which leads to it from Charing Cross — the great 
highway of the Strand, "down which the tide of labour 
flows daily to the City," + and where Charles Lamb says that 
he " often shed tears for fulness of joy at such multitude of 
life." To us, when we think of it, the Strand is only a vast 
thoroughfare crowded with traffic, and the place whither we 
go to find Exeter Hall, or the Adelphi or Gaiety theatres, 

• Sir Thomas Pope Blunt's " Censura Authorum." 
t Blanchard Jerrold. 



6 WALKS IN LONDON, 

as our taste may guide us. But the name which the street 
still bears will remind us of its position, following the strand, 
the shore, of the Thames. This was the first cause of its 
popularity, and of its becoming for three hundred years 
what the Corso is to Rome, and the Via Nuova to Genoa, 
a street of palaces. The rise of these palaces was very 
gradual. As late as the reign of Edward II. (1315) a 
petition was presented complaining that the road from 
Temple Bar to Westminster was so infamously bad that it 
was ruinous to the feet both of men and horses, and more- 
over that it was overgrown with thickets and bushes. In 
the time of Edward III. the rapid watercourses which 
crossed that road and fell into the Thames were traversed 
by bridges, of which there were three between Charing Cross 
and Temple Bar. Of two of these bridges the names are 
still preserved to us in the names of two existing streets — 
Ivy Bridge Lane and Strand Bridge Lane ; the third bridge 
has itself been seen by many living persons. It was dis- 
covered in 1802, buried deep beneath the soil near St. 
Clement's Church, and was laid bare during the formation 
of some new sewers. In the reign of Henry VIII. "the 
road of the Strand was still described as full of pits and 
sloughs, very perilous and noisome." But the Strand was 
the highway from the royal palace at Westminster to the 
royal palace on the Fleet, and so became popular with the 
aristocracy. Gradually great houses had sprung up along 
its course, the earliest being Essex House, Durham House, 
and the Palace of the Bishops of Norwich, afterwards called 
York House ; though even in Elizabeth's time the succession 
was rather one of country palaces than of town residences, 
for all the great houses looked into fields upon the north, 



THE STRAND, 7 

and on the south had large and pleasant gardens sloping 
towards the river. 

Till the Great Fire drove the impulse of building west- 
wards and the open ground of Drury Lane and its neigh- 
bourhood was built upon, the Strand was scarcely a street 
in its present sense; but it was already crowded as a 
thoroughfare. Even in 1628 George Wither, the Puritan 
Poet, in his " Britain's Remembrancer/' speaks of-^ 

** The Strand, that goodly throw-fare betweene 
The Court and City : and where I have seene 
Well-nigh a million passing in one day." 

It was in the Strand that (May 29, 1660) Evelyn " stood 
and beheld and blessed God " for the triumphal entry of 
Charles II. 

As the houses closed in two hundred years ago and the 
Strand became a regular street, it was enlivened by every 
house and shop having its own sign, which long took the 
place of the numbers now attached to them. Chaucer and 
Shakspeare when in London would have been directed to 
at the sign of the Dog, or the Golden Unicom, or the 
Three Crowns, or whatever the emblem of the house might 
be at which they were residing. The signs were all swept 
away in the reign of George III., both because they had 
then acquired so great a size, and projected so far over the 
street, and because on a windy day they were blown to and 
fro with horrible creaking and groaning, and were often torn 
off and thrown down, killing the foot-passengers in their fall. 
Many old London signs are preserved in the City Museum 
of the Guildhall, and are very curious. The persons who 
lived in the houses so distinguished were frequently sur- 



8 WALKS IN LONDON. 

named from their signs. Thus the famous Thomas k Becket 
was in his youth called " Thomas of the Snipe," from the 
emblem of the house where he was born. 

One only of the great Strand palaces has survived entire 
to our own time. We have all of us seen and mourned over 
Northumberland House, one of the noblest Jacobean build- 
ings in England, and the most picturesque feature of London. 
The original design was by Jansen, but it was altered by 
Inigo Jones, and from the plans of the latter the house 
was begun (in 1603) by Henry Howard, Earl of Northamp- 
ton, who was ridiculed for building so large a residence 
in the then country village of Charing. He bequeathed it 
to his nephew, the Earl of Suffolk, who was the builder of 
Audley End, and who finished the garden side of the house. 
It was then called Suffolk House, but changed its name 
(in 1642) when Elizabeth, daughter of the second Earl of 
Suffolk, married Algernon Percy, tenth Earl of Northumber- 
land. On his death it passed to his daughter, Lady Eliza- 
beth Percy, who was twice a widow and three times a wife 
before she was seventeen. Her third husband was Charles 
Seymour, commonly called the proud Duke of Somerset, 
who was one of the chief figures in the pageants and 
politics of six reigns, having supported the chief mourner 
at the funeral of Charles H., and carried the orb at the 
coronation of George H. It was this Duke who never 
allowed his daughters to sit down in his presence, even 
when they were nursing him for days and weeks together, 
in his eighty-seventh year at Northumberland House, and 
who omitted one of his daughters in his will because he 
caught her involuntarily napping by his bedside. In his 
last years his punctiliousness so little decreased that when 



NORTHUMBERLAND HOUSE. 9 

his second wife, Lady Charlotte Finch, once ventured 
to pat him playfully on the shoulder, he turned round 
upon her with, " Madam, my first wife was a Percy, and 
she would never have taken such a liberty." It was a 
son of this proud Duke who was created Earl of Northum- 
berland, with remainder to his only daughter, who married 
Sir Hugh Smithson, created Duke of Northumberland in 
1766. Added to, and altered at different periods, the 
greater part of the house, though charming as a residence, 
was architecturally unimportant. But when it was partially 
rebuilt, the original features of the Strand front had always 
been preserved — and as we saw its beautiful gateway, so 
with the exception of a few additional ornaments, Inigo 
Jones designed it. The balustrade was originally formed 
by an inscription in capital letters, as at Audley End and 
Temple Newsam, and it is recorded that the fall of one of 
these letters killed a spectator as the funeral of Anne of 
Denmark was passing. High above the porch stood for a 
hundred and twenty-five years a leaden lion, the crest of the 
Percies (now removed to Syon House) ; and it was a favour- 
ite question, which few could answer right, which way the 
familiar animal's tail pointed. Of all the barbarous and 
ridiculous injuries by which London has been wantonly 
mutilated within the last few years, the destruction of 
Northumberland House has been the greatest. The re- 
moval of some ugly houses on the west, and the sacrifice 
of a corner of the garden, might have given a better turn to 
the street now called Northumberland Avenue, and have 
saved the finest great historical house in London, " com- 
menced by a Howard, continued by a Percy, and completed 
by a Seymour " — the house in which the restoration of the 



lo fVALKS IN LONDON. 

monarchy was successfully planned in 1660 in the secret 
conferences of General Monk. 

It is just beyond the now melancholy site of Northumber- 
land House that we enter upon what is still called " the 
Strand." If we could linger, as we might in the early 
morning, when there would be no great traffic to hinder us, 
we should see that, even now, the great street is far from 
unpicturesque. Its houses, projecting, receding, still orna- 
mented here and there with bow-windows, sometimes with 
a little sculpture or pargetting work, present a very broken 
outline to the sky ; and, at the end, in the blue haze which 
is so beautiful on a fine day in London, rises the Flemish- 
looking steeple of St. Mary le Strand with the light stream- 
ing through its open pillars. 

The Strand palaces are gone now. In Italian cities, 
which love their reminiscences and guard them, their sites 
would be marked by inscribed tablets let into the later 
houses. This is not the way with Englishmen ; yet, even 
in England, they have their own commemoration, and in 
the Strand the old houses and the old residents have their 
record in the names of the adjoining streets on either side 
the way. Gay, calling upon his friend Fortescue to walk 
west with him from Temple Bar, thus alludes to them ; — 

** Come, Fortescue, sincere, experienced friend, 
Thy briefs, thy deeds, and e'en thy fees suspend ; 
Come, let us leave the Temple's silent walls ; 
Me business to my distant lodging calls ; 
Through the long Strand together let us stray. 
With thee conversing, I forget the way. 
Behold that narrow street which steep descends, 
Whose building to the slimy shore extends ; 
Here Arundel's famed structure rear'd its frame, 
The street alone retains the empty name. 



YORK HOUSE. ii 

Where Titian's glowing paint the canvas wann'd. 

And Raphael's fair design with judgment charm'd, 

Now hangs the bellman's song, and pasted here 

The colour'd prints of Overton appear. 

Where statues breathed, the works of Phidias' hands, 

A woodfen pump, or lonely watchhouse stands. 

There Essex' stately pile adom'd the shore, 

There Cecil's, Bedford's, Villiers's, — now no more." 



Charing Cross Railway Station, in front of which a copy 
of the ancient Cross of Queen Eleanor has been recently 
erected by E. Barry, occupies the site of the mansion of 
Sir Edward Hungerford (created Knight of the Bath at the 
coronation of Charles II.), which was burnt in April, 1669 
On the ground thus accidentally cleared Hungerford 
Market was erected, which was decorated with a bust of Sir 
Edward Hungerford "the Spendthrift," who died in 17 11, 
and was represented here in the wig for which he gave 
500 guineas. The Hungerford Suspension Bridge which 
here crossed the Thames now spans the tremendous chasm 
beneath St. Vincent's Rocks at Clifton. 

We must turn to the right, immediately beyond the station, 
to visit the remnants of the famous palace known as York 
House. The Archbishops of York had been without any 
town house after York Place, now Whitehall, was taken 
away from them by Wolsey, and this site, previously occu- 
pied by the Inn of the Bishops of Norwich, was given to 
them by Mary. The Archbishops, however, scarcely ever 
lived here. They let it to the Lords Keepers of the Great 
Seal, and thus it was that Sir Nicholas Bacon came to reside 
at York House, and that his son, the great Lord Bacon, was 
born here in 1560. He in his turn lived here as Chancellor, 
and was greatly attached to the place ; for when the Duke 



12 WALKS IN LONDON, 

of Lennox wished him to sell his interest in it, he answered, 
"For this you will pardon me, York House is the house 
where my father died, and where I first breathed, and there 
I will yield my last breath, please God and the king." 

" Lord Bacon being in Yorke house garden, looking on fishers, as 
they were throwing their nett, asked them what they would take for 
their draught ; they answered so much : his lordship would offer them 
no more but so much. They drew up their nett, and it were only 2 or 
3 little fishes. His lordship then told them, it had been better for 
them to have taken his oifer. They replied, they hoped to have had a 
better draught ; hut, said his lordship, < Hope is a good breakfasty but 
an ill supper.'' " — Aubrey's Lives. 

Steenie, James I.'s Duke of Buckingham, obtained York 
Place by exchange, and formed plans for sumptuously re- 
building it, but only the Watergate was completely carried 
out to show how great were his intentions. 

** There was a costly magnificence in the fetes at York House, the 
residence of Buckingham, of which few but curious researchers are 
aware ; they eclipsed the splendours of the French Court ; for Bassom- 
pierre, in one of his despatches, declares that he never witnessed 
similar magnificence. He describes the vaulted apartments, the ballets 
at supper, which were proceeding between the services, with various 
representations, theatrical changes, and those of the tables, and the 
music ; the duke's own contrivance, to prevent the inconvenience of 
pressure, by having a turning door like that of the monasteries, which 
admitted only one person at a time." — U Israeli. Curiosities of 
Literature. 

The Parliament gave the house to their General, 
Fairfax, but when his daughter married George Villiers, 
the second Duke of Buckingham, it brought the property 
back into that family. Cromwell was exceedingly angry 
at this marriage. The Duke was permitted to reside 
at York House with his wife, but on his venturing to go 
without leare to Cobham to visit his sister, he was 



YORK HOUSE, 13 

arrested and sent to the Tower, where he remained 
till the Protector's death. It was this Duke — 

" Who, in the course of one revolving moon, 
Was chemist, fiddler, statesman, and buffoon ; 
Then all for women, painting, rhyming, drinking, 
Besides ten thousand freaks that died in thinking." 

Pope. 

He sold York House and its gardens for building purposes, at 
the same time buying property in Dowgate, but insisted as 
a condition of purchase that he should be commemorated in 
the names of the streets erected on his former property, and 
this quaint memorial of him still remains in the names of 
George Street, Villiers Street, with Duke Street and Buck- 
ingham Street, formerly connected by Of Lane — George 
Villiers, Duke of Buckingham. This nomenclature was 
much laughed at at the time, and gave rise to the satire 
called " The Litany of the Duke of Buckingham," containing 
the lines — 

" From damning whatever we don't understand, 
From purchasing at Dowgate, and selling in the Strand, 
Calling streets by our name when we have sold the land, 
Libera nos Domine ! " 

Villiers Street, where John Evelyn tells us that he lived 
1583-4, "having many important causes to despatch, and 
for the education of my daughters," leads by the side of 
Charing Cross Railway Station to the pretty gardens on the 
Thames Embankment, where we may visit the principal 
remnant of York House — and a grand one it is — the stately 
Watergate, built for Duke Steenie, and perhaps the most 
perfect piece of building which does honour to the name 
of Inigo Jones.* On the side towards the river are the 

» See Ralph's " Critical Review of Public Buildings." 



X4 WALKS IN LONDON. 

Duke's arms, and on the side towards Buckingham Street 
the Villiers motto, " Fidei coticula Crux'' — ''The Cross 
is the Touchstone of Faith." The steps, known as York 
Stairs, and the bases of its columns, haye been buried 
since the river has been driven back by the Embankment, 
and the " Watergate " has now lost its meaning ; but since 
it is undoubtedly one of the best architectural monuments 




The Watergate of York House. 



in London, perfect alike in its proportions and its details, 
it is a great pity that a large fountain or tank is not made 
in front of it, so that its steps might still descend upon 
water. At present it only serves curiously to mark the 
height to which the Embankment has been raised. In 
ancient days the river was fordable at low-water opposite 
York Stairs. 



DURHAM HOUSE, 15 

Immediately behind the gate is, at the end of Bucking- 
ham Street on the left, the only remaining portion of the 
house of the Duke of Buckingham. It is now used for 
the Chirity Organization Society, but retains its old 
ceilings, decorated with roses and apples magnificently 
raised in stucco of extraordinary bold design ; and, in the 
centre, pictures, perhaps by Verrio, of Spring and Summer. 
Peter the Great lived in the upper part of this house when 
he was in England, and used to spend his evenings here 
with Lord Caermarthen, drinking hot brandy with pepper 
in it ; and here also Dickens, who lived here for some time 
himself, makes his David Copperfield reside in " a singularly 
desirable, compact set of chambers, forming a genteel 
residence for a young gentleman." The house on the 
other side the way, upon which the windows of this old 
house looked out, was occupied by Samuel Pepys. York 
House itself contained a fine picture gallery in the time 
of Charles I., and the Cain and Abel of John of Bologna 
was amongst the decorations of its garden. 

Beyond the gardens of York House, on the same side of 
the Strand, the houses of the great nobles once ranged 
along the Thames bank, as the Venetian palaces do along 
the Grand Canal. First came Durham House, with great 
round towers, battlemented like a castle towards the river. 
The Earls of Leicester had a palace here, at the water-gate 
of which Simon de Montfort hospitably received his enemy, 
Henry III., when he was driven on shore by a tempest to 
which his boat was unequal. The Bishop of Durham first 
possessed it under Bishop Beck, in the time of Edward I., 
but it was rebuilt by Bishop Hatfield in 1345. Edward VI. 
gave it to his sister Elizabeth. Afterwards it was inhabited 



l6 WALKS IN LONDON, 

by John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, and here, says 
Holinshed, were celebrated in May, 1553, three marriages 
— that of Lord Guildford Dudley, fourth son of Northum- 
berland, with Lady Jane Grey ; that of her sister Katherine 
with Lord Pembroke; and that of Katherine Dudley, 
youngest daughter of Northumberland, with Lord Hastings. 
Lady Jane's marriage was intended as a prelude to placing 
her on the throne, and from hence she set forth upon her 
unhappy progress to the Tower to be received as Queen. 
Elizabeth afterwards granted the house to Sir Walter 
Raleigh. 

" I well remember his study, which was on a little turret, that looked 
into and over the Thames, and had the prospect, which is as pleasant, 
perhaps, as any in the world, and which not only refreshes the eie-sighi, 
but cheers the spirits, and (to speake my mind) I believe enlarges an 
ingeniose man's thoughts." — Aubrey^s Lives. 

But, on the death of Elizabeth, the Bishops of Durham 
reasserted their claims to their palace, and Raleigh was 
turned out. On part of the site of Durham House was 
built, in 1608, the New Exchange, called " the Bursse of 
Britain " by James I. It was here that the wife of Monk, 
Duke of Albemarle, sold gloves and washballs, at the sign 
of " The Three Spanish Gypsies," when married to her first 
husband, Thomas Radford the farrier ; and here that " La 
Belle Jennings," the heroic widow of Richard Talbot, Duke 
of Tyrconnel, ruined by the fall of James II., sate working 
in a white mask and was known as " the White Milliner," 
under which name she appears in a drama by Douglas 
Jerrold. 

Part of the site of Durham House and its gardens is now 
occupied by Adelphi Terrace^ approached by streets with 



SOCIETY OF ARTS. 17 

names which commemorate each of its founders, the four 
enterprising brothers, John, Robert, James, and William 
Adam (1768); while the name Adelphi, from the Greek 
word dScA</>ot (brothers), commemorates them collectively. 
David Garrick, whose " death eclipsed the gaiety of 
nations,"* expired (1779) in the centre house of the 
Terrace, which has a ceiling by Antonio Zucchi, and hence 
he was borne with the utmost pomp, followed by most of 
the noble coaches in London, to Westminster Abbey. The 
witty Topham Beauclerk also died in the Terrace, and 
Boswell narrates how he " stopped a Httle while by the 
railings, looking on the Thames," and mourned with John- 
son over the two friends they had lost, who once lived in 
the buildings behind them. In John Street, Adelphi, poor 
King Kamehameha II., of the Sandwich Islands, and his 
Queen both died of the measles, July, 1824. Here is the 
Hall of the Society for the Encouragement of Arts^ Manu- 
factures^ and Commerce, 

Free admission is granted to visitors every day between 10 and 4, 
except on Wednesdays and Saturdays. 

The Committee Room contains the six great pictures of 
James Barry (1741 — 1806) which were intended to illustrate 
the maxim that the attainment of happiness, individual as 
well as public, depends on the development, proper cultiva- 
tion, and perfection of the human faculties, physical and 
moral. The artist was employed upon them for seven years. 
They represent— 

1. Orpheus, as the founder of Grecian theology, instructing the 
savage natives of a savage country. 

2. A Grecian Harvest Home, as pourtraying a state of happiness . 
and simplicity. 

* Dr. Johnson. 
VOL. I. C 



Tg WALKS IN LONDON, 

3. Crowning the Victors at Olympia, The finest portion of this 
immense picture r3presents the sons of Diagoras of Rhodes carrying 
their father in triumph round the stadium. He is said to have died of 
joy on beholding his three sons victors on the same day. 

4. Commerce^ or the Triumph of the Thames. The figures of Drake, 
Raleigh, Sebastian Cabot, and Captain Cook are absurdly introduced 
as Tritons ! 

5. The Distribution of Rewards by the Society of Arts. This pic- 
ture is interesting as containing a number of contemporary portraits — 
Dr. Johnson, Edmund Burke, Mrs. Montagu, the Duchesses of Devon- 
shire, Rutland, Northumberland, &c. 

6. Elysium, or the State of Final Retribution, being an apotheosis 
of those whom the artist considered to be the chief cultivators and 
benefactors of mankind. 

" "Whatever the hand may have done, the mind (in these pictures) has 
done its part ; there is a grasp of mind here which you will find 
nowhere else." — Dr. Johnson. 

" The audacious honesty of this eminent man conspired against his 
success in art ; he talked and wrote down the impressions of his pencil. 
The history of his life is the tale of splendid works contemplated and 
seldom begun, of theories of art, exhibiting the confidence of genius 
and learning, and of a constant warfare waged against a coterie of 
connoisseurs, artists, and antiquarians, who ruled the realm of taste." — 
Allan Cunningham,, 

In the Anteroom is a good portrait, by R. Cosway, of 
William Shipley, brother of Jonathan Shipley, Bishop of 
St. Asaph, by whom the Society was founded in 1754. 

Returning to the Strand, we may notice that at Coutts's 
Bank (between Buckingham Street and Durham Street) 
the royal family have banked since the reign of Queen 
Anne. 

On the right of the Strand is Ivy Bridge Lane, where, says 
Pennant, •* the Earl of Rutland had a house in which 
several of that noble family breathed their last.*' It was in 
a house opposite the entrance of this lane that " that olde, 
olde man," Thomas Parr, died, having done penance in 
Alderbury Church for being the father of an illegitimate 



CO VENT GARDEN, 19 

child when he was above an hundred years old. Salisbury 
Street and Cecil Street now commemorate Salisbury House, 
the town residence of Sir Robert Cecil, Earl of Salisbury, 
Lord High Treasurer in the time of James I. No trace 
of it is left except in the names. 

The district to the north of the Strand, where the palaces 
we have been describing looked into the open country, 
belonged to the Dukes of Bedford, and is known as Bed- 
fordbury. Brydges Street and Chandos Street here commemo- 
rate the marriage of the 4th Earl of Bedford with Catherine, 
daughter and co-heiress of Giles Brydges, 3rd Lord Chandos, 
whose mansion once occupied their site. The title of the 
5th Earl, created Marquis of Tavistock at the Restoration, 
remains in Tavistock Street. His eldest son, the famous 
William, Lord Russell, married Lady Rachel Wriothesley, 
second daughter of Thomas, Earl of Southampton, whence 
Southampton Street. Here the "Bedford Head" was 
situated, where Paul Whitehead gave his supper parties, 
and which is celebrated in the lines of Pope — 

" When sharp with hunger, scorn you to be fed, 
Except on pea-chicks — at the Bedford Head." 

Southampton Street — where phosphorus was first manufac- 
tured in England — leads into Covent Garden, a space which, 
as early as 1222, under the name of Fr^re Pye Garden, was 
the convent garden of Westminster, and which through all 
the changes of time and place has ever remained sacred to 
the fruits and flowers of its early existence, so that, though 
they are no longer growing, it has never lost its old name 
of "garden.'' At the Dissolution Edward VI. granted the 
garden to his uncle the Protector Somerset, but, reverting 



30 WALKS IN LONDON. 

to the crown on his attainder, it was afterwards granted, 
with the seven acres called Long Acre, to John, Earl of 
Bedford, who built his town-house on the site now occupied 
by Southampton Street. It was not till 1621 that the houses 
around the square were built from designs of Inigo Jones, 
but then, and long afterwards, the market continued to be 
held under the shade of what Stow calls " a grotto of trees," 
hanging over the wall of the grounds of Bedford House 
(now commemorated in Bedford Street), which bounded 
Covent Garden on the south. Many allusions in the works 
of the poets of Charles II. 's time show that this, which 
Sydney Smith calls " the amorous and herbivorous parish 
of Covent Garden," was then one of the most fashionable 
quarters of London— in fact, that it was the Belgrave Square 
of the Stuarts, and it will always be classic ground from its 
association with the authors and wits of the last century. 
When Bedford House was pulled down in 1704, the market 
gradually, by the increasing traffic, became pushed into the 
middle of the area, and finally has usurped the whole, 
though a print by Sutton Nichols shows that as late as 
1 8 10 it only consisted of a few sheds. 

The north and east sides of the market are still occupied 
by the arcade, first called " the Portico Walk," but which 
has long borne the quaint name of Fiazza, an open cor- 
ridor like those which line the streets of Italian towns. 
It is common-place enough now with ugly plastered 
columns, but when originally built by Inigo Jones, was 
highly picturesque, with its carved grey stone pillars re- 
lieved upon a red brick front. There is an odd evidence 
of the popularity of the piazza in the time of Charles II., 
James II., and William III., in the fact that " piazza " was 



CO VENT GARDEN, 21 

chosen as the favourite name for the foundling children of 
the parish. The registers abound in such names as Peter 
Piazza, Mary Piazza, and Paul Piazza. It was the custom 
in those days to lay all foundling children at the doors of 
the unfortunate Bishop of Durham, and leave them there. 
In the last century the square was used for the football 
matches, which are described by Gay : — 

" Where Covent Garden's famous temple stands, 
That boasts the woik of Jones' immortal hands, 
Columns with plain magnificence appear, 
And graceful porches lead along the square ; 
Here oft my course I bend, when lo ! from far 
I spy the furies of the football war ; 
Tt s 'prentice quits his shop to join the crew, 
Increasing crowds the flying game pm-sue. 
O whither shall I run ? the throng draws nigh ; 
The ball now skims the street, now soars on high ; 
The dexterous glazier strong returns the bound, 
And jingling sashes on the pent -house sound." 

Attention was much drawn to Covent Garden in 1799, 
by the murder of Miss Reay, who was shot in the Piazza 
by Mr. Hackman, a clergyman (from jealousy of Lord 
Sandwich), as she was coming from Covent Garden Theatre. 
In the Old Hunimums Tavern died Parson Ford, whose 
ghost-story, of his twofold appearance in the cellar of that 
house, is told in Boswell's Life of Johnson. 

It was in Covent Garden that the famous "Beefsteak 
Club " was founded in the reign of Queen Anne, and meeting 
every Saturday in " a noble room at the top of Covent Garden 
Theatre, would never suffer any dish except Beef Steaks to 
appear." * The Club was composed " of the chief wits and 
illustrious men of the nation ; " the badge worn by the 

• The Connoisseur, No. XXIX. 



23 WALKS IN LONDON. 

members being a golden gridiron suspended round the 
neck by a green riband.* The Club was burnt in 1808, 
and Handel's organ and the manuscript of Sheridan's 
Comedies were destroyed in the fire. Amongst those who 
lived in the square were Sir P. Lely and Sir Godfrey 
Kneller. 

When St. Martin-in-the-Felds became too small for its 
parishioners, Francis, fifth Earl of Bedford, to whom 
all this neighbourhood belonged, desired Inigo Jones to 
build him a chapel in Covent Garden, but said that he 
would not go to any expense about it — in short, that it 
must be little better than a barn. " Then it shall be the 
handsomest barn in England," said Inigo Jones, and he 
built St. PauPs, Covent Garden (always interesting as the 
first important Protestant church raised in England), which 
exactly fulfils his promise. Bare, uncouth, and featureless 
in its general forms, it nevertheless becomes really pic- 
turesque from the noble play of light and shade caused by 
its boldly projecting roof, and the deeply receding portico 
behind its two pillars. The most serious defect is that this 
portico leads to nothing, for, in order to have the altar to 
the east, the entrance is at the side, and the altar behind 
the portico. The interior is a miserable, featureless paral- 
lelogram. The portico alone escaped a fire in 1795, all the 
rest, which was originally of brick, perished, together with 
the tomb of Sir P. Lely (whose real name was Vandervaes), 
and his famous picture of Charles I. as a martyr, kneeling 
with a crown of thorns in his hand, having cast his royal 
crown aside. Southeme the dramatist, the friend of 
Dry den, (ob. 1746) used regularly to attend evening prayers 

• Chetwood'* " Hist, of the Stage." 



ST, PAUrS, CO VENT GARDEN, 2$ 

here ; a " venerable old gentleman, always neatly dressed 
in black, with his silver sword and silver locks." * 

A great number of eminent persons besides Lely were 
buried here when Covent Garden was in fashion. They 
include Robert Carr, Earl of Somerset (1645), ^^^ notorious 
favourite of James I., who lived hard by in Russell Street; 
Tom Taylor — " the Water Poet " — whose endless works do 
so much to illustrate the manner of his age (1654); Dr. 
John Donne, son of the famous poet-dean of St. Paul's, but 
himself described by Wood as " an atheistical buffoon, a 
banterer, and a person of over-free thought" (1662); Sir 
Henry Herbert, Master of the Revels to Charles I. (1673); 
Richard Wiseman, the companion of Charles II. in exile, 
and his serjeant-surgeon after the Restoration, whose works 
attest the cures worked "by his Majesty's touch alone" 
(1676); Sir Edward Greaves, physician of Charles II. 
(1680) ; Dick Estcourt the actor, whose death is described 
by Steele in No. 468 of the Spectator (1711-12); Edward 
Kynaston the famous actor of female parts, who kept 
Charles II. waiting because "the queen was not shaved 
yet,"* and who left his name to " Kynaston's Alley" (17 12) ; 
William Wycherley the dramatist (17 15) ; Grinling Gibbons 
the sculptor (1721) ; Mrs. Susannah Centlivre ^he dramatist 
(1723); Robert Wilks the comedian (1731)-, Dr. John 
Armstrong the physician and poet, attacked by Churchill 
(1779); Tom Davies the bookseller; the friend of Boswell, 
who introduced him to Johnson (1785) ; Sir Robert Strange t 

* Oldys. 

+ Knighted, in spite of his having fought for Prince Charles Edward, and 
having narrowly escaped from arrest and execution by being concealed from his 
pursuers under the wide-spreading hoop of a young lady from whom he implored 
protection, and whom he afterwards married. 



24 WALKS IN LONDON. 

the engraver (1792) ; Charles Macklin the actor, who 
appeared in his hundredth year in the character of 
Shylock (1797); Thomas Girtin the "Father of Water- 
colour painting" (1802); Thomas King the actor (1805); 
and Dr. John Walcott—" Peter Pindar" (1819). Under 
the north-west wall of the church rests Samuel Butler, the 
author of "Hudibras" (1680). 

" His feet touch the wall. His grave 2 yards distant from the 
pilaster of the dore, (by his desire) 6 foot deepe." — Aubrey. 

" In the midst of obscurity passed the life of Butler, a man whose 
name can only perish with his language. The mode and place of his 
education are unknown ; the events of his life are variously related ; 
and all that can be told with certainty is, that he was poor." — Dr. 
Johnson, 

Amongst the grave-stones in the miserable churchyard is 
that of James Worsdale, the painter (1767), which bore the 
lines (removed in 1848) by himself — 

" Eager to get, but not to keep, the pelf, 
A friend to all mankind except himself;** 

and that of Henry Jerningham, goldsmith (1761), with the 
lines by Aaron Hill — 

" All that accomplish'd body lends mankind 
From earth receiving, he to earth resign'd ; 
All that e'er graced a soul from Heaven he drew, 
And took back with him, as an angel's due." 

On Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, its especial 
market-days, Covent Garden should be visited. It is really 
one of the prettiest sights in London, and it is difficult to 
say whether the porch given up to flowers, or the avenue 
devoted to fruit, is most radiant in freshness and colour. 
How many London painters, unable to go farther afield, 
have come hither with profit to study effects of colour, 



COVENT GARDEN. 35 

which the piles of fruit give, as nothing else can ! Turner's 
early love for the oranges, which he knew so well in his 
home near Covent Garden, comes out in his later life, in his 
" Wreck of the Orange Vessel," in which the fruits of his 
boyish study are seen tossing and reeling on the waves. 

The later existence of Covent Garden has become 
associated with actors and actresses, from its neighbour- 
hood to the Cock-pit, Drury Lane, and Covent Garden 
Theatres. 

" The convent becomes a playhouse ; monks and nuns turn actors 
and actresses. The garden, formal and quiet, where a salad was cut 
for a lady abbess, and flowers were ga^^hered to adorn images, becomes 
a market, noisv and fuU of life, disinbuting thousands of fruits and 
flowers to a vicious metropolis." — W. S. Landor. 

Thackeray has left a vivid description of Covent Garden 
in its present state : — 

" The two great national theatres on one side, a churchyard full of 
mouldy but undying celebrities on the other; a fringe of houses 
studded m every part with anecdote or history ; an arcade often more 
gloomy and deserted than a cathedral aisle ; a rich cluster of brown 
old taverns — one of them filled with the counterfeit presentments of 
many actors long since silent ; who scowl and smile once more from the 
canvas upon the grandsons of their dead admirers ; a something in the 
air which breathes of old books, old painters, and old authors ; a place 
beyond all other places one would choose in which to hear the chimes 
at midnight, a crystal palace — the representative of the present — 
which presses in timidly from a comer upon many things of the 
past; a withered bank that has been sucked dry by a felonious 
clerk, a squat building with a hundred columns, and chapel-looking 
fronts, which always stands knee-deep in baskets, flowers, and scattered 
vegetables ; a common centre into which Nature showers her choicest 
gifts, and where the kindly fruits of the earth clten nearly choke the 
narrow thoroughfares ; a population that never seems to sleep, and that 
does all in its power to prevent others sleeping ; a place where the very 
laicst suppers and the earliest breakfasts jostle each other over the 
footways." 



ab WALKS IN LONDON. 

The names of the qrreater part of the streets around 
Coven t Garden bear evidence to the time of their erection. 
Besides those called after the noble family which owned 
them, we have King Street, Charles Street, and Henrietta 
Street, called after Charles I. and his Queen ; James Street 
and York Street from the Duke of York ; Catherine Street 
from Catherine of Braganza. Some of the doors in King 
Street are of mahogany, for here lived the lady by whom 
that wood was first introduced. That Bow Street, on the 
west of Covent Garden, was once fashionable, we learn from 
the epilogue of one of Dry den's plays — 

" I've had to-day a dozen billets doux 
From fops, and wits, and cits, and Bow Street beaux ; " 

but, as Sir Walter Scott observes, *' a billet doux from Bow 

Street," which has been associated with the principal 

police-courts of London for more than a century, " would 

now be more alarming than flattering." Edmund Waller 

the poet, and Grinling Gibbons the sculptor, lived in this 

street, and, at one time, while he was writing "Tom 

Jones," Fielding the novelist. It was to this street also 

that Charles II. came to visit Wycherley when he was 

ill, and gave him ;^5oo that he might go to the south 

of France for his health. Bow Street became famous in 

the last century as containing WilVs — the "Wits' Coffee 

House," described in Prior's " Town and Country Mouse," 

where you might 

"see 
Priests sipping coffee, sparks and poets, tea." 

It was brought into fashion by its being the resort of 
Dryden. Hither Pope, at twelve years old, persuaded 



COFFEE HOUSES OF CO VENT GARDEN, 27 

his friends to bring him that he might look upon the great 
poet of his childish veneration, whom he afterwards 
described as "a plump man, with a down look, and not 
very conversable." 

** Will's " continued to be the Wits' Coffee House till 
Addison drew them to *' Button's " (who had been a 
servant of his),* in the neighbouring Great Russell Street. 
Here Pope describes him as coming to dine daily, and 
remaining for five or six hours afterwards. At " Tom's 
Coffee House," at No. 17 in the same street. Dr. Mead, 
the most famous of English physicians from the reign of 
Queen Anne to that of George II., used to sit daily, pre- 
scribing for his patients upon written or oral statements 
from their apothecaries. This was the favourite resort of 
Johnson and Garrick ; here also was daily to be seen the 
familiar figure of Sir Joshua Reynolds, with his spectacles 
on his nose, his trumpet always in his ear, and his silver 
snuff-box ever in his hand. It was at No. 8 in this street 
that Boswell first saw Dr. Johnson. 

In Maiden Lane, which runs parallel with the Strand to 
the south of Covent Garden, the great artist Turner was 
born in May, 1775, in the shop of his father, who was a 
hairdresser. Maiden Lane leads into Chandos Street, 
where Claude Duval was taken, at the tavern called " the 
Hole in the Wall," in 1669. 

Returning to the Strand, Burleigh Street 2Lnd. Exeter Street 
commemorate Exeter House, where the great Lord Burleigh 
lived and died. Elizabeth came here to see him when he 
was ill, in a headdress so high that she could not enter the 
door. The groom of the chambers ventured to urge her to 

• Pope in " Spence's Anecdotes.*' 



28 WALKS IN LONDON. 

Stoop. " I will stoop for your master," she said, " but not 
for the King of Spain ;" and when Lord Burleigh himself 
apologized for not being able to stand up to receive her on 
account of the badness of his legs, she replied, " My lord, 
we do not make use of you for the badness of your 
legs, but for the goodness of your head." The site of 
the house was afterwards occupied by the Exeter Change, 
which contained a famous menagerie, of which the ele- 
phant Chunee, whose skeleton is now at the College of 
Surgeons, was a distinctive feature. Between the two 
streets now stands Exeter Hall i^mlim 1831 by Deering)^ 
celebrated for its concerts and its religious " May meetings." 

On the right, on the site of Beaufort Buildings, stood 
Worcester House, once the palace of the Bishops of 
Carlisle, afterwards rented from the Marquis of Worcester 
by the Lord Chancellor Hyde. Here it was that, with 
outward reluctance and secret glee, he connived at the 
strange marriage of his daughter Anne, which was celebrated 
in the middle of the night of September 3, 1662, with the 
Duke of York, afterwards James H. The house was pulled 
down when the Duke of Beaufort bought Buckingham 
House in Chelsea. In Beaufort Buildings lived Fielding 
the novelist, and it was here that, having given away to a 
needy friend the money which had been advanced to him 
in his poverty by Jacob Tonson the publisher, for the pay- 
ment of his taxes, he said coolly to the astonished collector, 
" Friendship has called for the money, and had it, let the 
tax-gatherer call again." 

We must now turn aside by a narrow street upon the right 
of the Strand, and it will be with a sense of almost surprise 
as well as relief that we find ourselves transported from the 



THE SAVOY, 2q 

noise and bustle of the crowded thoroughfare to the 
peaceful quietude of a sunny churchyard, where the old 
grey tombstones are shaded by a grove of plane-trees and 
lilacs, and where an ancient church stands upon a height, 
with an open view towards the gleaming river with its busy 
Embankment, and Westminster Abbey and the Houses of 
Parliament rising in the stillness of the purple haze beyond. 
We are " completely out of the world, although on the very 
skirt, and verge, and hem of the roaring world of London."* 
In this churchyard, and on the ground now occupied by all the 
neighbouring courts and warehouses, once stood the famous 
Savoy Palace. Having been built by Peter, brother of Arch- 
bishop Boniface, and uncle of Eleanor of Provence, wife of 
Henry IH., when he came over on a visit to his niece, it 
became a centre for all the princes, ecclesiastics, and artists 
who flowed into London in consequence of her marriage. He 
bequeathed it to the monks of Montjoy at Havering at the 
Bower, from whom it was bought by Queen Eleanor for her 
second son Edmund, Earl of Lancaster. It continued in the 
hands of his descendants, and, after the battle of Poitiers, in 
1356, became the residence of the captive King John of 
France. John was set free in October, 1360, but being 
unable to fulfil the conditions of his release, and unwilling 
to cede to his captor the Black Prince in chivalry and 
honour, voluntarily returned, and being again assigned a 
residence in the Savoy, died there April 9, 1364, at which, 
says Froissart, " the King, Queen, and princes of the blood, 
and all the nobles of England, were exceedingly concerned, 
from the great love and affection King John had shown them 
since the conclusion of peace." 

•G.A.Sa)a. 



30 WALKS IN LONDON, 

While the Savoy was the London residence of John of 
Gaunt, the poet Chaucer was married here to PhiHppa de 
Ruet, a lady in the household of Blanche, Duchess of Lan- 
caster, and sister of Catherine Swyneford, who became the 
Duke's second wife. In 138 1 "the Duke of Lancaster's 
house of the Savoy, to the which," says Stow, " there was 
none in the realme to be compared in beauty and stateli- 
nesse," was pillaged and burnt by the rebels under Wat 
Tyler, to punish the Duke for the protection he had afforded 
to the followers of Wickliffe. Thirty-two of the assailants 
lingered so long drinking up the sweet wine in the cellars, 
that they were walled in, and **were heard crying and 
calling seven daies after, but none came to helpe them out 
till they were dead." Hardyng's Chronicle commemorates 
the flight of John of Gaunt from the Savoy : — 

*' The comons brent the Sauoye a place fayre 
For evill wyll the hand vnto Duke John : 
Wherefore he fled northwarde in great dispayre 
Into Scotlande ; for socoure had he none 
In Englande then, to who he durste make moane ; 
And there abode tyll commons all were ceased 
In Englande hole, and all the land well peased." 

The Savoy was never restored as a palace, but Henry 
VII. rebuilt it as a hospital in honour of John the Baptist, 
and endowed it by his will. The hospital was suppressed 
by Edward VI., but refounded by Mary, and only finally 
dissolved in the reign of Elizabeth. Over its gate, of 1505, 
were the lines — 

" Hospitium hoc inopi turbe Savoia vocatum, 
Septimus Henricus fimdavit ab imo solo." 

Soon after the Restoration the Conference of the Savoy 



ST, MARY LE SAVOY, 



31 



was held here for the revision of the Liturgy so as to meet 
the feeUngs of the Nonconformists, in which twelve bishops 
of the Church of England met an equal number of Non- 
conformists in discussion. Richard Baxter, who had 
already published his most popular books, was one of 
the commissioners, and here drew up in a fortnight that 
reformed liturgy which Dr. Johnson pronounced " one 



^-V5 



r-^ <c- 



^Vi',>JC'^ ^ 



r<~^ 



v-n 



IV / 




The Churchyard of the Savoy, 



of the finest compositions of the ritual kind which he 
had ever seen." 

The remains of the Savoy palace were all swept away 
when Waterloo Bridge was built. Originally dedicated to 
St. John the Baptist, it was called St. Mary le Savoy, be- 
cause it served as a church for the parish of St. Mary le 
Strand. The church was the chapel, not of the palace, 
but of Henry VII. 's hospital. There is a tradition that 



33 IVALKS IN LONDON, 

the Liturgy restored by Elizabeth was first read in this 
chapel in the vernacular tongue. It is of Perpendicular 
architecture (1505), with a quaint low belfry like those 
of many small churches in Northumberland. The inte- 
rior was entirely destroyed by fire in i860, and was 
for the second time renewed by the munificence of the 
Queen as Duchess of Lancaster. It has a rich coloured 
roof, and resembles a college chapel ; but the tombs which 
formerly made it so interesting perished in the flames. 
Only one small figure from Lady Dalhousie's monument 
is preserved, and the brass of Gavin Douglas, the Bishop 
of Dunkeld, son of Archibald Bell the Cat, Earl of Angus, 
who is represented in ** Marmion " as celebrating the 
wedding of De Wilton and Clare : — 

** A bishop at the altar stood, 
A noble lord of Douglas blood, 
With mitre sheen, and rocquet white. 
Yet show'd his meek and thoughtful eye 
But little pride of prelacy ; 
More pleased that, in a barbarous age, 
He gave rude Scotland Virgil's page. 
Than that beneath his rale he held 
The bishopric of fair Dunkeld." 

Over the lont is preserved the central compartment of a 
triptych, painted for the Savoy in the fourteenth cen- 
tury, stolen in the seventeenth, and recovered in 1876. 
Among the lost monuments were an Elizabethan tomb, 
wrongfully ascribed to the famous Countess of Nottingham 
shaken in her bed by Elizabeth; that of Sir Robert 
and Lady Douglas; of the Coimtess of Dalhousie, sister. 
of Mrs. Hutchinson and daughter of Sir Allan Apsley, 
Lieutenant of the Tower; of Mrs. Anne Killigrew (1685), 



SOMERSET HOUSE, 33 

daughter of a Master of the Hospital, described by Dryden 

as — 

"A grace for beauty, and a muse for wit ; " 

and of Richard Lander, the African traveller, who died 
(1834) of a wound received from the natives while explor- 
ing the Niger. Amongst the most remarkable persons 
buried here without a monument, " within the east door of 
the church," says Aubrey, was George Wither (1607), a 
voluminous poet of the Commonwealth, author of '*The 
Shepherds Hunting," and " The Matchless Orinta," but 
best known by the lines — 

^ " Shall I, wasting in despair, 
Die because a woman's fair.** 

This historic corner of the Savoy has been left untouched 
amid the turmoil of the town, and is still one of the quietest 
spots in London. 

«* So run the sands of life through this quiet hourglass. So glides 
the life away in the Old Precinct. At its base, a river runs for all the 
world ; at its summit, is the brawling, raging Strand ; on either side, 
are darkness and poverty and vice ; the gloomy Adelphi Arches, the 
Bridge of Sighs, that men call Waterloo. But the Precinct troubles 
itself little with the noise and tumult, and sleeps well through life, 
without its fitful fever."— 6^. A. Sala. 

Beyond the wide opening of Wellington Street are the 
\>\y\^v;\g%Q{ Somerset House, t.TQZ\.^^ from the stately plans of 
Sir William Chambers, 1776 — 86. The river front is six 
hundred feet in length. This building, now of little interest, 
occupies the site of one of the most historic houses in Lon- 
don, which was only destroyed when the present house was 
raised. The old Somerset House was built in 1549 on the 
site of the town houses of the Bishops of Worcester, 

VOL. I. D 



34 WALKS IN LONDON. 

Lichfield, and Landaff, by Edward Seymour, the Lord 
Protector, brother of Queen Jane, and uncle of Edward 
VL Its architecture was attributed to John of Padua, 
" devizer of his Majesty's buildings " to Henry VIIL 
The tower and the greater part of the Church of St. John's, 
Clerkenwell, the cloister (called Pardon Churchyard) of St. 
Paul's, and the chapel of Pardon Churchyard near the 
Charterhouse, were unscrupulously pulled down, and their 
materials used in its erection. But long before it was 
finished (1552) the Protector had been beheaded on Tower 
Hill, and his house was bestowed upon the Princess 
Elizabeth. James L gave it to Anne of Denmark, and 
desired that it might be called Denmark House, and here 
that Queen lay in state in 1616, and James I. in 1625. 
Charles I. then gave the house to his Queen, Henrietta 
Maria, and caused a Roman Catholic chapel to be built 
here for her use, which was served by Capuchin monks, 
and in which many of her French attendants were buried. 
Their vaults still exist undei the present courtyard. The 
time of the Commonwealth was marked for Somerset 
House by the death of Inigc Jones within its walls (1652) ; 
and here Cromwell lay in state, his " effigies being ap- 
parelled in a rich suit of uncut velvet," bearing " in the 
right hand the golden sceptre, representing Government; 
in his left the globe, representing Principality; upon 
his head the cap of Regality of purple velvet, furred 
with ermins."* The magnificence of expenditure on this 
occasion made people collect outside the gates and throw 
dirt upon the Protector's escutcheon at night. 
With the Restoration, Henrietta Maria, then called "the 

• TJte Gaze tie, Sept. 9, 1658. 



SOMERSET HOUSE, 35 

Queen-Mother," returned to Somerset House, where the 
young Duke of Gloucester died in 1660, and was taken 
"down Somerset stairs," to be buried at Westminster. 
When Henrietta Maria left England, in 1665, she was 
succeeded by the Portuguese Queen, Catherine of Braganza, 
wife of Charles II., who used to spend her days in playing 
at Ombre, a game which she first introduced into England, 
and who trembled here in her chapel as she heard the 
frenzied people shouting round the Q^gy of the Pope as 
they burnt it before Temple Bar, on the occasion of the 
Duke of York's marriage with Mary of Modena. Catherine 
restored the old palace, which had become greatly neg- 
lected, with a magnificence which is commemorated by 
Cowley, who extols its position : — 

** Before my gate a street's broad channel goes, 
Which still with waves of crowding people flows ; 
And every day there passes by my side, 
Up to its western reach, the London tide, 
The spring-tides of the term ; my front looks down 
On all the pride and business of the town. 

;My other fair and more majestic face 

(Who can the fair to more advantage place ? ) 

For ever gazes on itself below, 

In the best mirror that the world can show." 

General Monk, Duke of Albemarle, lay in state at Somer- 
set House in January, 1669, when his waxwork figure, after- 
wards preserved in Westminster Abbey, was made, to lie 
upon his coffin. 

The formal gardens of old Somerset House extended 
far along the river-bank, and it was near their " water-gate " 
that Sir Edmund Berry Godfrey was declared to have been 
strangled (1678) by the fahe-witnesses who invented the 



|6 WALKS IN LONDON, 

Story of his death. Three men were executed for the 
murder, with which an attempt was made to connect the 
name of Catherine of Braganza, but Charles II. refused to 
listen, telling Burnet that she was "a weak woman, and 
had some disagreeable humours, but was not capable of a 
wicked thing." 

After Catherine left England for Portugal in 1692, this 
old Strand palace continued to be regarded as the dower 
house of the queens of England, but as there were no 
queens-dowager to inhabit it, it was used as Hampton 
Court is now, as lodgings for needy nobility. By an Act 
of 1775, Buckingham House was settled on Queen Charlotte 
instead of Somerset House, and the old palace of the 
queens of England was then destroyed. The buildings 
of modern Somerset House are used for the Audit 
Office, where the accounts of the kingdom and colonies are 
audited; the Office of the Registrar-General of Births y 
Deaths^ and Marriages; and the Inland Revenue Office, 
where taxes and legacy and excise duties are received. 
The centre of the south front is occupied by the Will 
Office^* removed from Doctors' Commons in 1874. The 
courtyard has a well-proportioned and stately gloominess. 
In the centre is the great allegorical figure of the Thames, 
by John Bacon. Queen Charlotte, whose feehng has been 
shared by thousands since, said to the sculptor when she 
saw it, " Why did you make so frightful a figure ? " " Art," 
replied the bowing artist, " cannot always effect what is 

• In the Registry of the Court of Probate at Somerset House, all Wills are 
preserved in a fire-proof room. Any Will inquired after can be found in a short 
time, and any one may peruse a Will, who obtains a shilling probate stamp. No 
copies or even memoranda may be made from a Will, without a separate Order, 
for which a fixed payment is demanded, in proportion to the length of the copy 
required. 



THE ROMAN BATH IN THE STRAND. 37 

ever within the reach of Nature — the union of beauty and 
majesty." It is amusing to see the impression which 
Somerset House makes on a foreigner. 

" If you would see something quite dreadful, go to the enormous 
palace in the Strand, called Somerset House. Massive, heavy archi- 
tecture, of which the recesses seem dipped in ink, the porticos smeared 
with soot. Therc is the ghost of a waterless fountain in a hole in the 
midst of an empty quadrangle, pools of water on the flags, long tiers 
of closed windows. What can men do in such a catacomb ?" — Taine. 
Notes sur V Angleterre. 

Beyond the east wing of Somerset House, occupied by 
King's College and school, runs the narrow alley called 
Strand Lane, which formerly ended at the landing-place, 
called Strand Bridge, where we read in the Spectator that 
Addison " landed with ten sail of apricot-boats." On the 
left of the winding paved lane a sign directs us to the 
Old Roman Spring Bath, and in this quiet corner we find 
one of the most remarkable relics of Roman London — - 
a vaulted room containing, enclosed in brick-work and 
masonry, apparently Roman, a beautiful bath of crystal 
water, thirteen feet long, six feet broad, and four feet six 
inches deep. It is believed that the. wonderfully cold, 
clear water comes from the miraculous well of St. Clement, 
which gave a name to the neighbouring Holywell Street, 
and was once greatly resorted to for its cures. A second 
bath, in the same building, still used, and with chalybeate 
properties, is shown as having been constructed by Eliza- 
beth's Earl of Essex, when he was residing hard by in Essex 
House. It is said that it was in a house in this neighbour- 
hood that Guy Fawkes and his comrades took the oath of 
secrecy and received the sacrament before attempting to 
carry out the Gunpowder Plot 



38 WALKS IN LONDON, 

Here, in the midst of the street, rises the Church of St, 
Mary-le-Strand^ which is of interest as being the first of the 
fifty new churches whose erection was ordained in Queen 
Anne's reign, the original St. Mary's having been destroyed 
by the Protector Somerset when he was building Somerset 
House, which covers its site. Gibbs was the architect of 
the present church, but its steeple, so beautiful in spite 
of having the fault of appearing to stand upon the roof 
of the church, was not part of the original design. The 
church was to have been towerless, but a stately column 
250 feet high {i.e. 105 feet higher than the Nelson column 
in Trafalgar Square) was to have riser beside it, crowned 
by a statue of Queen Anne. But the Queen died before 
the plan was carried out, and flattery being no longer 
necessary, the church had its steeple. It occupies the site 
of the famous May-pole, one hundred and thirty-four feet 
high, which was destroyed in the Commonwealth as "a 
last remnant, of vile heathenism, an idol of the people." 
It was re-erected with great pomp under Charles II., 
by Clarges, the Drury Lane farrier, to commemorate 
the good fortune of his daughter in becoming a duchess 
by having married General Monk when he was a private 
gentleman. The tract called " The Citie's Loyaltie Dis- 
played" relates how it was set up by seamen under the 
command of James, Duke of York, Lord High Admiral, 
no landsmen being able to raise it, and how, as it rose, 
** the httle children did much rejoice, and ancient people 
did clap their hands, saying golden days began to 
appear." Gathered around the last May-pole on this 
spot, four thousand London school -children sang a 
hymn as Queen Anne passed in triumphant procession to 



HOLYWELL STREET, 39 

take part in the public thanksgiving at St. Paul's for the 
Peace of Utrecht. The May-pole was finally removed in 
17 17, and, being given to Sir Isaac Newton, was set up in 
Sir Richard Child's park at Wan stead in Essex, where it 
was used for raising a telescope. The London May-pole 
was long commemorated in May-pole Lane, the old name 
of Newcastle Street. The exchange for the church is 
mentioned by Pope in the " Dunciad" — 

** Amid that area wide they took their stand, 
Where the tall Maypole once o'erlooked the Strand, 
But now (so Anne and Piety ordain), 
A church collects the saints of Drury Lane.'* 

According to Hume, Prince Charles Edward's renuncia- 
tion of the Roman Catholic faith took place in this church. 
Where an ugly little fountain now stands before its 
western front, the first Hackney Coach stand in London 
was set up by Captain Baily in 1634 : it existed till 1853. 

Drury Court , facing the east side of St. Mary-le-Strand, 
was formerly May-pole Alley, where Nell Gwynne lodged, 
and stood watching the dancing round the May-pole. 

*' 1st May, 1667. — To Westminster, in the way meeting many milk- 
maids with their garlands upon their paUs, dancing, with a fiddler 
before them ; and saw pretty NeUy standing at her lodging-door, in 
Drury Court, in her smock-sleeves and bodice, looking upon me ; she 
seemed a mighty pretty creature." — Pepys* Diary, 

Holywell Street has nothing now which recalls Fitz- 
Stephen's description of its well — " sweete, wholesome, and 
cleere; and much frequented by schollers and youths of 
the citi in summer evenings, when they walk forth to take 
the aire." It is full of book shops, chiefly of the lowest 



4© WALK'S IN LONDON, 

description. On its south side (at No. 36) may be seen 
an ancient mercer's sign, the last of the old shop signs 
in situ — a crescent moon, with the traditional face in the 
centre. The corner post of the entry beside it, adorned 
with a lion's head and paws in bold relief, was (in 1877) 




The Last Remnant of Lyon's Inn. 



the last relic of Lyon's Inn, destroyed in 1863, which was 
here entered from the Strand. It stood between Wych 
Street and Holywell Street, and was once a hostelry, but 
from the reign of Henry IV. an Inn of Chancery — an 
ancient nursery of lawyers, where Sir Edward Coke was 
brought up, and where "his learned lectures so spread 



ST. CLEMENT DANES. 4I 

forth his fame that crowds of clients came to him for 

counsel." * In the south-east comer of the Inn lived 

William Weare, the gambler, murdered (1828) by Thurtell 

at Elstree in Hertfordshire, and commemorated in the 

ballad— 

** They cut his throat from ear to ear, 
His brains they battered in ; 
His name was Mr. WiUiara Weare, 
He dwelt in Lyon's Inn." 

Holywell Street formerly ended in Butchers* Row, where, 
covered with roses, fleurs-de-lis, and dragons, was the old 
timber house of the French ambassadors. 

We have arrived — 

** Where the fair columns of Saint Clement stand, 
Whose straiten'd bounds encroach upon the Strand." 

Gay. Trivia. 

The Church of St. Clement Danes was erected in 1680 by 
Edward Pierce, under the superintendence of Wren. In the 
old church, from its vicinity to Exeter House, were buried 
John Booth, Bishop of Exeter (1478), and his brother, Sir 
WilUam, who died in the same year ; and John Arundell, 
Bishop of Exeter (1503). Here also was a monument to 
the first wife of Dr. John Donne, the poet-dean of St. Paul's, 
who preached in the church soon after her death on the 
words, " Lo, I am the man that hathseen affliction." And 
" indeed his very words and looks testified him to be truly 
such a man." It was this wife whose spirit he saw twice 
pass through his room at Paris, bearing the dead child to 
which she was then giving birth. Like all Wren's parish 
churches, the existing building depends entirely upon its 

• Lloyd's " State Worthies." 



42 WALKS IN LONDON, 

steeple, which is built in several stories, for its reputation. 
Its bells chime merrily, even to a proverb — 

" Oranges and lemons, 
Say the bells of St. Clement's ; " 

but the chimes can also play the Old Hundredth Psalm 
and other tunes. Here Dr. Johnson sate in church, 
*' repeating," as Boswell says, " the responses in the Litany 
with tremulous energy," and here in his seventy-fifth year 
(1784) he returned public thanks for a recovery from 
dangerous illness. A brass plate now appropriately marks 
the pew (No. 18) in the north gallery whither the old man, 
who was so vehement in discussion and fierce in argument 
on week-days, never failed to come humbly on Sundays, to 
seek, in his own words, " how to purify and fortify his soul, 
and hold real communion with the Highest." It was in this 
church that, on October 11, 1676, Sir Thomas Grosvenor 
was married to Miss Mary Davies, the humble heiress of 
the farm now occupied by Grosvenor Square and its sur- 
roundings, which have brought such enormous wealth to 
his family. In the vestry house is a painting executed for 
the church as an altar-piece, by Kent the landscape 
gardener, intended to represent a choir of angels playing in 
chorus. In 1725 an order was issued by Bishop Gibson 
for its removal on account of its being supposed to contain 
surreptitious portraits of the Pretender's wife and children. 
It was removed to a neighbouring tavern — the Crown and 
Anchor — celebrated for the meetings of " the Whittington 
Club." Here it was parodied in an engraving by Hogarth, 
with a comic description which caused intense amusement 
at the time. After some years it was restored to the parish, 
but not to the church. 



CLEMENT'S INN, 43 

Of the strange name, St. Clement Danes, various explana- 
tions are given. Stow tells how the body of Harold, the 
illegitimate son of King Canute, buried at Westminster 
after a reign of three years, was exhumed by his successor, 
the legitimate Hardicanute, and thrown ignominiously into 
the Thames, and how a fisherman, seeing it floating upon 
the river, took it up and buried it reverently on this spot. 
This is the more picturesque story; but perhaps that of 
Strype is more likely, who says that when Alfred expelled 
the remnant of the Danish nation in 886, those who had 
married English wives were still permitted to live here, 
whence the name — St. Clement Danes. 

The *' fair fountain," formerly called St. Clement's Well, 
after becoming a pump, was finally destroyed in 1874, but is 
commemorated in Clemetifs Inn — to the left, at the entrance 
of Wych Street, now an Inn of Court dependent on the 
Temple, but originally intended for the use of patients 
coming to the miraculous waters of the well. Shakespeare 
introduces it in his Henry IV. as the home of " Master 
Shallow." We should walk through its quiet red-brick 
courts, by the quaint chapel, where an anchor commemo- 
rates the martyrdom of the sainted Pope Clement, who was 
tied to an anchor and thrown into the sea. Hence, through 
a brick archway, we have a pleasant glimpse of trees and 
flowers, and enter a garden square, in the centre of which, 
in front of " the Garden House," a picturesque relic of 
Queen Anne's time, is a curious kneeling figure of a Moor 
supporting a sun-dial, brought from Italy by Holies, Lord 
Clare. At the time when these examples of " God's image 
carved in ebony" were popular in ancient gardens.* a clever 

* There are similar figures at Knowsley, and at Arley m Cheshire. 



44 



WALKS IN LONDON. 



squib upon its owners was once found attached to the Moor 
of Clement's Inn : — 

•* From cannibals thou fled'st in vain ; 
Lawyers less quarter give ; 
The first won't eat you till you're slain, 
The last will do't alive." 

A further archway leads into the poor and crowded 
district of Ciare Market^ named, as is told by a tablet on 




The Moor of Clement's Inn. 



one oAhe houses, " by Gilbert Earl of Clare, in memory of 
his uncle Denzil, Lord Holies, who died in 1679, a great 
honour to name, and the exact paturne of his father's great 
meritt, John, Earl of Clare." From the same person the 
neighbouring Deiizil Street takes its name, which became 
notorious as the resort of the thieves known as the " Denzil 
Street Gang," while Houghton Street marks the residence 
of William Holies, created Baron Houghton in 16 16, and 
Holies Street, built 1647, is associated with the second Earl, 



WYCH STREET, 45 

who lived on the site of Clare House Court. In Pope's time 
Clare Market was famous for the lectures of the insolent 
" Orator Henley," commemorated in the " Dunciad." 

** Irabrowned with native brass, lo ! Henley stands, 
Tuning his voice and balancing his hands. 

Still break the benches, Henley, with thy strain. 
While Sherlock, Hare, and Gibson preach in vain." 

Wych Street (Via de Aldwych), which opens behind 
Holywell Street, close to the entrance of Clement's Inn, 
contains some curious old houses and is excessively narrow. 
Theodore Hook said he "never passed through Wych 
Street in a hackney coach, without being blocked up by a 
hearse and coal-waggon in the van, and a mud cart and the 
Lord Mayor's carriage in the rear." This street is famous in 
the annals of London thieving for the exploits of Jack Shep- 
pard, who gave rendezvous to his boon companions at the 
White Lion (now pulled down) in White Lion Passage. It 
was from the Angel Inn in Wych Street that Bishop Hooper, 
in 1554, was taken to die for his faith at Gloucester. 

A hosier's shop, which occupies one of three picturesque 
houses built in the time of Charles I. in the Strand parallel 
with Holywell Street, has an old street sign of the 
Golden Lamb swinging over its door. The streets which 
debouch here from the Strand — Surrey Street, Norfolk 
Street, and Howard Street — mark the site of Arundel 
House, originally the palace of the Bishops of Bath and 
Wells, in which, according to the parish register of Chelsea, 
died (February 25th, 1603) Catherine, Countess of Notting- 
ham, who yielded to her husband's solicitation in not send- 
ing the ring intrusted to her by Lord Essex for Elizabeth, 



46 



WALKS IN LONDON. 



and confessing this to the Queen upon her deathbed, was 
answered by "God may forgive you, but I never can." 
The house was sold by Edward VI. to his uncle, Lord 
Thomas Seymour, described by Latimer as " a man the 
furthest from the fear of God that ever he knew or heard 




Wych Street. 



of in England." Here he married and greatly ill-treated 
the Queen-Dowager Katherine Parr, and incurred much 
censure for his impertinent familiarities with the Prpncess 
Elizabeth, who was living under her protection. After the 
execution of Seymour for treason the house was sold to the 
Earl of Arundel, and being thenceforth called Arundel House, 



NORFOLK STREET. 47 

became the receptacle of his busts and statues, a portion 
of which, now at Oxford, are still known as the " Arundel 
Marbles." It was Lord Arundel who brought up " Old 
Parr" to London from Shropshire to make acquaintance with 
Charles I., when far advanced in his hundred and fifty-third 
year. The Earl's good fare killed him, and he was buried 
in Westminster Abbey, where his epitaph narrates how he 
lived in the reign of ten sovereigns, and had a son by his 
second wife when he was a hundred and twenty years old. 
After the Great Fire, Henry Howard, Earl of Arundel, gave 
a shelter at Arundel House to the Royal Society, who were 
driven out of Gresham College, which was temporarily 
needed as a Royal Exchange. 

Norfolk Street will recall Sir Roger de Coverley, who 
there, "by doubling the corner, threw out the Mohocks," 
who "attacked all that were so unfortunate as to walk 
through the streets which they parade."* Peter the Great 
was lodged here, " in a house prepared for him near the 
water-side," on his first arrival in England in the reign of 
William HL, and in the same house — that nearest the 
river — lived William Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania. 
He had a peeping-hole at the entrance, through which he 
surveyed every one who came to see him before they were 
admitted. One of these having been made to wait for a 
long time, asked the servant impatiently if his master 
would not see him. " Friend," said the servant, " he 
hath seen thee, but he doth not like thee."t The fact was 
he had discovered him to be a creditor. 



•The follies and cnielties perpetrated by the Mohocks are described in tho 
Sf rotator, No. 324, 332, 335, 347. 
Hawkins' Life of Johnson. 



48 fFALKS IN LONDON. 

In Howard Street, which connects Norfolk Street with 
Surrey Street, Mr. Mountfort was killed (December 9, 
1692) by Captain Richard Hill, in a duel fought for the 
sake of the beautiful and virtuous actress, Mrs. Bracegirdle, 
" the Diana of the stage." Lord Mohun, afterwards him- 
self killed in a duel with the Duke of Hamilton, was Hill's 
second in this quarrel. 

William Congreve (1666—1729), in whose licentious plays 
the immaculate Mrs. Bracegirdle obtained her greatest suc- 
cesses, lived and died in Surrey Street, Condemned now, 
no English author was more praised by his contemporaries ; 
Pope dedicated his Iliad to him, Dr. Johnson lauded his 
merit " as of the highest kind," and Dryden wrote — 

" Heaven, that but onee was prodigal before, 
To Shakspeare gave so much, he could not give him more." 

Perhaps the only snub which Congreve received was from 
Voltaire, who came to visit him here, and being received 
with the airs of a fine gentleman, announced that if he had 
thought he was 07ily a gentleman^ he should not have come 
thither to see him. 

Milford Lane (right) takes its name from a corn-mill aad 
from a famous ford which once existed across the river here. 
It leads to Milford stairs, where Pepys used " to take boat ; " 
and is commemorated by Gay in the unflattering lines — 

" Behold that narrow street, which steep descends, 
Whose buOding to the slimy shore extends." 

Trivia. 

We now come to Essex Street, where Dr. King in his 
Anecdotes of his own Time describes his presentation to 
Prince Charles Edward in September 1750, at the house 



ESSEX HOUSE. 49 

of I^dy Primrose. It was the Prince's only visit to London, 
and he was only there five days. The same Lady Primrose 
(daughter of Drelincourt, Dean of Armagh, and widow of 
Hugh, 3rd Viscount Primrose) gave a home in 1747 to 
Flora Macdonald after her release by the government. 
Essex Street occupies the site of Exeter House, which 
was built by Walter Stapleton, Bishop of Exeter. Here 
he was besieged by the people when he was holding London 
for Edward IL, and, having fled to take sanctuary at 
St. Paul's, was beheaded, and brought back to be buried 
under a dust-heap by his own gateway. After the Refor- 
mation, Exeter House was inhabited by the Earl of 
Leicester, and then by Elizabeth's latest favourite, the 
Earl of Essex (whose Countess was the widow of Sir 
Philip Sidney), when the name was changed to Essex 
House. It was here that the handsome earl tried to 
rouse the people against Sir R. Cecil, Sir Walter Raleigh, 
and other reigning court favourites whom he believed to 
have been the cause of his losing his ascendancy over 
the Queen. Here he was blockaded, cannon being pointed 
at Essex House from the roofs of the neighbouring houses 
and the tower of St. Clement Danes, and hence, having 
surrendered, he was taken away to the Tower, where he 
was beheaded. It is to Essex House that Spenser alludes, 
after describing the Temple, in the Prothalamion : — 

" Next whereunto there standes a stately place, 
Where oft I gayned giftes and goodly grace 
Of that great lord, which therein wont to dwell, 
Whose want too well now feels my ireendles case." 

A pair of stone pillars at the end of the street, whi 
perhaps belonged to its water-gate, are the only existing 

VOL. I. £ 



so 



WALKS IN LONDON, 



remains of the old house. But in Droereux Court (on the 
left of Essex Street), high up on a wall, is a bust of Lord 
Essex, attributed to Gibber. It marks the celebrated 
Grecian coffee-house, where the wits of the last century- 
loved to congregate, and whence Steele, in the first number 
of the Tatler^ says that he shall date all his learned articles. 




The Water-gate of Essex House. 



The dandyism and affectation displayed by the young 
students of the Inns of Court frequenting the Grecian 
excited the contempt of Addison [Spectator, 4^1), who says, 
*' I do not know that I meet in any of my walks objects 
which move both my spleen and laughter so effectually as 
those young fellows at the Grecian, Squire's, Searle's, and 
aii other coiTee-houses adjacent to the law, who rise early 



TEMPLE BAR, 



SI 



for no other purpose but to publish their laziness. One 
would think these young virtuosos take a gay cap and 
slippers, with a scarf and party-coloured gown, to be the 
ensigns of dignity ; for the vain things approach each other 
with an air which shows they regard one another for their 
vestments." 

Palsgrave's Place^ the next entry on the right of the 
Strand, marks the site of the " Palsgrave's Head Tavern," 
which commemorated the marriage of Frederick, Palsgrave 
of the Rhine, with Elizabeth, eldest daughter of James I. 
Ship Yard, opposite, destroyed in building the Law Courts, 
was a relic of' Sir Francis Drake, as containing the Tavern 
which took as its sign the ship in which he circumnavigated 
the world. 

We now arrive where, black and grimy, in much sooty 
dignity, Temple Bar still ends the Strand, and marks the 
division between the City of London and the Liberty of 
Westminster. It was never a city gate, but as defining the 
City bounds, was, according to ancient custom, invariably 
closed, and only then, when a sovereign approached the 
City on some public occasion. When the monarch arrived, 
one herald sounded a trumpet, another herald knocked, a 
parley ensued, the gates were flung open, and the Lord 
Mayor presented the sword of the City to the sovereign, 
who returned it to him again. Thus it was at the old 
Temple Bar with Elizabeth when she went to return thanks 
at St. Paul's for the destruction of the Armada ; so it was 
with Cromwell when he went to dine in state in the City in 
164-9 j so with Queen Anne after the batde of Blenheim ; so 
witii Queen Victoria when she has gone to the City in state. 

Strype says that " anciently there were only posts, rails, 



5t WALKS IN LONDON, 

and a chain" at Temple Bar. It is first mentioned as 
Barram Novi Templi in a grant of 1301 (29, Edward I.), but 
we have no definite idea of it till the sixteenth century. 
In the time of Henry VII. it is believed that a wooden 
edifice was erected, and was the gate beneath which the 
bier of Elizabeth of York, on its way from the Tower to 
Westminster, was sprinkled with holy water by the abbots 
of Bermondsey and Westminster. We know that it was 
" newly paynted and repayred " for the coronation of Anne 
Boleyn (1533), and that it was "painted and fashioned 
with battlements and buttresses of various colours, richly 
hung with cloth of arras, and garnished with fourteen 
standards of flags " (1547) for the coronation of Edward VI * 
It was by this " TempuU Barre " that Sir Thomas Wyatt 
was taken prisoner. Being summoned to surrender, he 
said he would do so to a gentleman, when Sir Maurice 
Berkeley rode up, and " bade him lepe up behind him, and 
so he was carried to Westminster." 

The present Temple Bar was built in 1670. Charles II. 
promised (but never paid) a large contribution towards it 
from the revenue he received from licensing the then 
newly invented hackney coaches. Sir Christopher Wren 
was the architect and Joshua Marshall the mason. Bushell, 
a sculptor who died mad in 1701, was employed to adorn 
it with four feeble statues, those on the west representing 
Charles I. and Charles II., those on the east Elizabeth 
and James I. 

The statue of the popular Elizabeth used annually to 
receive an ovation on the anniversary of her accession, 
which was kept as the chief festival of Protestantism, till after 

•Stow 



TEMPLE BAR. 



53 



the coming of William III., when Protestant ardour was 
transferred to Guy Fawkes' day. Roger North, in his " Ex- 
amen," describes how the statue was provided every 17th 
of November with a wreath of gilded laurel and a golden 
shield with the motto — "The Protestant Religion and 
Magna Charta," and how, while the figure of the Pope was 
burnt beneath it, the people shouted and sang — - 

** Your popish plot and Smithfield threat 

We do not fear at all, 
For lo ! beneath Queen Bess's feet, 

YoufaU! YoufaU! YoufaU! 
O Queen Bess ! Queen Bess ! Queen Bess ! " 

It was on the occasion of a tumult which arose at one of 
these anti-papal demonstrations (1680) that the Archbishop 
of York going to Lord Chief Justice North, and asking 
what was to be done, received the answer — " My Lord, 
fear God, and don't fear the people." 

Within the arch hung the heavy oaken panelled gates, 
festooned with fruits and flowers, which opened to receive 
Charles II., James II., and every succeeding sovereign. 
In 1769 these gates were forcibly closed in " the Battle of 
Temple Bar," by the partisans of " Wilkes and Liberty," 
against the civic procession which was on its way to 
George III. The whole of the gateway was hung with 
black for the funeral of the Duke of Wellington. 

No one sees Temple Bar without connecting it with 
the human remains — dried by summer heats, and beaten 
and occasionally hurled to the ground by winter storms 
— by which it was so long surmounted. The first ghastly 
ornament of the Bar was one of the quarters of Sir Wil- 
liam Armstrong, Master of the Horse to Charles II., who 



54 



WALKS IN LONDON. 



was concerned in the Rye House Plot, and who, after 
his execution (1684), was boiled in pitch and divided 
into four parts. The head and quarters of Sir Wil- 
liam Perkins and the quarters of Sir John Friend, who 
had conspired to assassinate William III., " from love to 




Temple Bar from the Strand. 



King James and the Prince of Wales," were next exhibited, 
*' a dismal sight," says Evelyn, "which many pitied." The 
next head raised here was that of Joseph Sullivan, executed 
for high treason in 17 15. Henry Osprey followed, who 
died for love of Prince Charlie in 1716; and Christopher 
Layer, executed for a plot to seize the king's person in 



TEMPLE BAR, 55 

1723. The last heads which were exposed on the Bar were 

those which were concerned in the " rebellion of '45." It is 
difficult to believe that it is scarcely more than a hundred 
and twenty years since Colonel Francis Townley, George 
Fletcher, and seven other Jacobites were so barbarously 
dealt with — hanged on Kennington Common, cut down, 
disembowelled, beheaded, quartered, their hearts tossed 
into a fire, from which one of them was snatched by a 
bystander, who devoured it to show his loyalty. Walpole 
afterwards saw their heads on Temple Bar, and says that 
people used to make a trade of letting out spy-glasses to 
look at them at a halfpenny a look. The spikes which sup- 
ported the heads were only removed in the present century. 
It was in front of the Bar that the miserable Titus Oates 
stood in the pillory, pelted with dead cats and rotten eggs, 
and that De Foe, placed in the pillory for a libel on the 
Government, stood there enjoying a perfect ovation from 
the people, who drank his health as they hung the pillory 
with flowers. 

** I remember once being with Goldsmith in "Westminster Abbey. 
While we surveyed the Poets' Comer, I said to him, * Forsitan et 
nostrum nomen miscebitur istis.' When we got to Temple Bar he 
stopped me, pointed to the heads upon it, and slyly whispered, • For- 
sitan et nostrum nomen miscebitur istis." — Dr. Johnson, 

With the removal of Temple Bar an immensity of the 
associations of the past will be swept away. Almost all 
the well-known authors of the last two centuries have some- 
how had occasion to mention it. Fleet Street, just within 
its bounds, is still the centre for the offices of nearly all the 
leading newspapers and magazines, and those who stood 
beneath the soot-begrimed arches had to the last somewhat 



56 WALKS IN LONDON, 

of the experience which Dr. Johnson describes in his " Pro- 
ject for the Employment of Authors" (1756). 

"It is my practice, when I am in want of amusement, to place 
myself for an hour at Temple Bar, and examine one by one the looks of 
the passengers ; and I have commonly found that between the hours of 
eleven and four every sixth man is aa author. They are seldom to be 
seen very early in the morning or late in the evening, but about dinner- 
time they are all in motion, and have one uniform eagerness in their 
faces, which gives little opportunity of discovering their hopes or fears, 
their pleasures or their pains. But in the afternoon, when they have 
all dined, or composed themselves to pass the day without a dinner, 
their passions have full play, and I can perceive one man wondering at 
the stupidity of the public, by which his new book has been totally 
neglected; another cursing the French, who fight away literary 
curiosity by their threat of an invasion ; another swearing at his book- 
seller, who will advance no money without copy ; another perusing as 
he walks his publisher's bill ; another murmuring at an unanswerable 
criticism ; another determining to write no more to a generation of 
barbarians ; and another wishing to try once again whether he cannot 
awaken a drowsy world to a sense of his merit." 



CHAPTER 11. 
THE INNS OF COURT. 

JUST within Temple Bar we may turn aside into the 
repose of the first of the four Inns of Court (Middle 
Temple, Inner Temple, Lincoln's Inn, and Gray's Inn), 
which Ben Jonson calls " the noblest nurseries of humanity 
and liberty in the kingdom." Here, beside the bustle of 
Fleet Street, yet utterly removed from it, are the groups of 
ancient buildings described by Spenser : — 

" — those bricky towers, 
The which on Thames' broad aged back doe ride, 
Where now the studious lawyers have their bowers, 
There whilom wont the Temple knights to bide, 
Till they decayed through pride." 

The earliest residence of the Knights Templar was in 
Holborn, but they removed hither in 1184. After their 
suppression in 13 13 Edward I. gave the property to Aymer 
de Valence. At his death it passed into the hands of the 
Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, but was leased to the 
Inns of Court, so called because their inhabitants, who 
were students of the law, belonged to " the King's Court." 
It is interesting to notice how many of the peculiar terms 
used by the Templars seem to have descended with the 



58 WALKS IN LONDON, 

place to their legal successors. Thus the serjeants-at-law 
represent the fr aires servientes — " freres serjens " of the 
Templars ; and the title of Knight reappears in that of 
the Judges. The waiters were, and are still, called pan- 
niers, from the panarii^ bread-bearers, of the Templars; 
and the scullions are still called wash-pots. The register of 
the Temple is full of such entries as " On March 28th died 
William Brown, wash-pot of the Temple." 

Before the Temple was leased by the lawyers, the laws 
were taught in hostels — hospitia curice, of which there were a 
great number in the metropolis, especially in the neighbour- 
hood of Holborn, but afterwards the Inns of Court and 
Chancery increased in prosperity till they formed what Stow 
describes as " a whole university of students, practisers or 
pleaders, and judges of the laws of this realm, not living on 
common stipends, as in the other universities it is for the 
most part done, but of their owne private maintenance." 
The name oiHostel was continued in that of Inn. Butler, 
playing on the latter, speaks of 

" — the hostess 
Of the Inns of Court and Chancery — ^Justice." 

The prosperity of the lawyers, however, was not without 
its reverses, and such was their unpopularity at the time of 
Jack Cade's rebellion that they were chosen as his first 
victims. Thus, in Shakespeare's Henry VI. (Pt. 11. Act iv. 
sc. 2), Dick, the Butcher of Ashford, is introduced as say- 
ing, " The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers ; " to 
which Cade replies, '* Nay, that I mean to do. Is not this 
a lamentable thing, that of the skin of an innocent lamb 
should be made parchment ? that parchment, being scrib- 
bled over, should undo a man ? " And in scene 7 Cade 



THE TEMPLE, 59 

says, " Now go some and pull down the Savoy ; others to 
the Inns of Court ; down with them all ! " 

In the end, Jack Cade really did the lawyers no harm, 
but their houses were pulled down in the invasion of Wat 
Tyler, and their books burnt in Fleet Street. Nevertheless 
the Inns of the Temple continued to increase in importance 
till the reign of Mary I., when the young lawyers had be- 
come such notorious fops that it was actually necessary to 
pass an Act of Parliament to restrain them. Henceforth 
they were not to wear beards of more than three weeks' 
growth upon pain of a fine of forty shillings ; and they must 
restrain their passion for Spanish cloaks, swords, bucklers, 
rapiers, gowns, hats, or daggers at their girdles. Only 
Knights and Benchers might luxuriate in doublets or hose 
of bright colours, except scarlet or crimson ; and they were 
forbidden to wear velvet caps, scarf-wings to their gowns, 
white jerkins, buskins, velvet shoes, double shirt-cuffs, or 
feathers and ribbons in their caps. 

The Temple was not finally conferred upon the lawyers 
till the time of James I., who declared in one of his 
speeches in the Star Chamber that " there were only three 
classes of people who had any right to settle in London — 
the courtiers, the citizens, and the gentlemen of the Inns of 
Court." The division into two Halls dates from the time 
of Henry VI., when the number of students who frequented 
the Temple first made it necessary, and the two Halls have 
ever since maintained a distinct individuality. Though 
their gateways rise almost side by side on the right of Fleet 
Street, and their courts and passages join, the utmost dis- 
tinction exists in the minds of the inmates. 

Before any student can be admitted to either of the four 



6p WALKS IN LONDON. 

Societies of the Inns of Court, he must obtain the certifi- 
cate of two barristers, and in the case of the Middle Temple 
that of a bencher, to show he is " aptus, habilis, et idoneus 
moribus et scientia." On his admission, he has the use of 
the library, may claim a seat in the church or chapel of the 
Inn, and can have his name set down for chambers. He 
must then keep commons, by dimng in hall for twelve 
terms, of which there are four in each year. Before keeping 
terms, he must also deposit ;£ioo with the treasurer, 
to be returned, without interest, when he is called to 
the Bar. 

No student can be called till he is of three years' standing, 
and twenty-one years of age : after he is called, he becomes 
a Barrister. The call is made by the Benchers^ the govern- 
ing body of seniors, chosen for their "honest behaviour 
and good disposition," and " such as from their experience 
are of best note and ability to serve the kingdom." 

Lectures are given at each of the Inns, which are open 
to all its students; examinations take place and scholar- 
ships are awarded : but a man may be called to the Bar 
who has not attended lectures or passed examinations, 
though keeping commons by dining in hall is an indispensable 
qualification. 

" The Inns of Court are interesting to others besides lawyers, for 
they are the last working institutions in the nature of the old trade 
guilds. It is no longer necessary that a shoemaker should be approved 
by the company of the craft before he can apply himself to making 
shoes for his customers, and a man may keep an oyster-stall without 
being forced to serve an apprenticeship and be admitted to the 
Livery of the great Whig Company ; but the lawyers' guilds guard the 
entrance to the law, and prescribe the rules under which it shall be 
practised. There are obvious advantages in having some authority to 
govern such a profession as the Bar, but it is sufficiently remarkable 



THE TEMPLE. 6l 

that the voluntary societies of barristers themselves should have 
managed to engross and preserve it." — Times Journal. 

A dull red-brick Gate-way^ by Wren (1684), forms the 
entrance to Middle Temple Lane. The site was formerly- 
occupied by a gate decorated with the arms of Cardinal 
Wolsey, which was erected by Sir Amias Paulet while he 
was the cardinal's prisoner in the other Temple Gate-house, 
in the hope of appeasing his displeasure. 

The second Gate- house belonging to the Inner Temple 
was once surmounted by gables and annexed to very 
picturesque buildings of great extent. Only a fragment of 
the ornamental portion remains, adorned with the feathers 
of Henry, Prince of Wales. A hairdresser of lively ima- 
gmation has set up an inscription declaring it to have 
been the palace of Henry VHI. and Cardinal Wolsey, 
but it was really built in the time of James I., when 
it was the office for the Duchy of Cornwall. Afterwards 
it became " Nando's," a coffee-house, where the foundation 
of Lord Thurlow's fortunes was laid. Some lawyers over- 
heard him here arguing cleverly about some famous cause, 
and the next day he received his first important brief. 
The sides of this gate are adorned with the arms of the 
Inner Temple, as that of the Middle Temple is with 
the lamb bearing the banner of Innocence and the red 
cross, which was the original badge of the Templars. Here 
the shields bear a horse, now representing Pegasus, with 
the motto, " Volat ad astera virtus," but when this emblem 
was originally chosen it was a horse with two men upon it, 
the two men on one horse being intended to indicate the 
poverty of the Templars. The men gradually became worn 
from the shield, and when it was restored they were mis- 



63 WALKS IN LONDON. 

taken for wings ; hence the winged horse. A wit once 
wrote Here : — 

" As by the Templars* hold you go, 

The horse and lamb display'd 
In emblematic figures show 
The merits of their trade. 

The clients may infer from thence 

How just is their profession ; 
The lamb sets lorth their innocence, 

The horse their expedition. 

Oh ! happy Britons, happy isle ! 

Let foreign nations say, 
Where you get justice without guile, 

And law without delay." 

But very soon another inscription appeared from another 
witty hand : — 

" Deluded men, these holds forego. 

Nor trust such cunning elves ; 
These artful emblems tend to show 
The clients — not theinselves. 

*Tis all a trick ; these all are shams 
By which they mean to cheat you : 

But have a care — iox youWe the lambs^ 
And they the wolves that eat you. 

Nor let the thought of « no delay * 
To these their courts misguide you : 

^T'x?, you' re the showy horse, and they 
1.h& jockeys that will ride you." 

It was at No. i on the right of the Inner Temple Lam 
(now rebuilt as Johnson's Buildings) that Dr. Johnson lived 
from 1760 to 1765. Boswell describes his visit to him 
ther.e. 

" His brown suit of clothes looked very rusty ; he had on a little old 
shrivelled unpowdered wig, which was too small for his head ; his shirt 
neck and the knees of his breeches were loose; his black worsted 



THE TEMPLE CHURCH, 63 

stockings ill drawn up ; and he had a pair of unbuckled shoes by way 
of slippers. But all these slovenly particulars were forgotten the 
moment he began to talk." 

By Inner Temple Lane we reach the only existing relic of 
the residence of the Knights Templars in these courts, their 
magnificent Temple Church (St. Mary's), which fortunately 
just escaped the Great Fire in which most of the Inner 
Temple perished. The church was restored in 1839 — 42 
at an expense of ;£7o,ooo, but it has been ill-done, and 
with great disregard of the historic memorials it contained. 

It is entered by a grand Norman arch under the western 
porch, which will remind those who have travelled in France 
of the glorious door of Loches. This opens upon the 
Round Church of 1185 (fifty-eight feet in diameter), built 
in recollection of the Round Church of the Holy Sepulchre, 
one of the only four remaining round churches in England ; 
the others being at Cambridge, Northampton, and Maple- 
stead in Essex. Hence, between graceful groups of Pur- 
beck marble columns, we look into the later church of 
1240; these two churches, built only at a distance of fifty- 
five years from each other, forming one of the most 
interesting examples we possess of the transition from 
Norman to Early English architecture. The Round Church 
is surrounded by an arcade of narrow Early English arches, 
separated by a series of heads, which are chiefly restora- 
tions. On the pavement lie two groups of restored effigies 
of "associates" of the Temple (not Knights Templar), 
carved in freestone, being probably the *' eight images of 
armed knights" mentioned by Stow in 1598. They can- 
not be identified with any certainty, but are supposed to 



64 WALKS IN LONDON. 

Right. 

1. "William Marshall the younger, husband of Eleanor, sister of 
King Richard I. and John, sheathing his sword. 

2. His father, the Protector Pembroke, Earl Marshall, 1 119, his 
sword piercing an animal. It is this William Marshall who, a man of 
unsullied life, is introduced by Shakspeare as interceding for Prince 
Arthur. 

3. Unknown. 

4. Gilbert Marshall, another son of Pembroke, drawing the sword 
which he never was able to bear to the Crusades, having been killed 
by a runaway horse at a tournament in 1241, when he was going to 
start. His wife was Princess Margaret of Scotland. This was the 
last of the great family of the Marshalls, whose extinction was at that 
time believed to be due to a curse of the Abbot of Femes, whom the 
Protector had robbed of his lands. Matthew Paris narrates how the 
abbot " came with great awe," and standing here by the Earl's tomb, 
promised him absolution if the lands were restored. But the dead 
gave no sign, so the curse fell. 

Left. 

1. The first Earl of Essex. 

2. Geoflfry de Magna ville, who was driven to desperation by the acts 
of injustice he received from Stephen, and fought against him. He 
was mortally wounded whilst attacking Burwel Castle in Cambridge- 
shire and died excommun'cated. His body was soldered up in lead and 
hung up by the Templars on a tree in their orchard, till he received 
absolution upon its being proved that he had expressed repentance in 
his last moments. 

3. Unknown. 

4. Unknown. 

The sight of these effigies will recall the lines in Spenser's " Fairy 
Queen — " 

" And on his breast a bloudie cross he bore, 
The deare remembrance of his dying Lord, 
For whose sweet sake that glorious badge he wore, 
Ajid dead, as living, ever him adored. 
Upon his shield the like was also scored. 
For sovereign hope which in his help he had." 

Against the wall, behind the Marshalls, is the effigy of 
Robert Ros, Governor of Carlisle in the reign of John. 



THE TEMPLE CHURCH, 65 

He was one of the great Magna Charta barons, and mar- 
ried the daughter of a king of Scotland, but he was not 
a Templar, for he wears flowing hair, which is forbidden 
by the rites of the Order : at the close of his life, however, 
he took the Templars* habit as an associate, and was 
buried here in 1227. On the opposite side is a Purbeck 
marble sarcophagus, said to be that of Queen Eleanor 
of Aquitaine, but her t.^%y is at Fontevrault, where the 
monastic annals prove that she took the veil after the 
murder '^f Prince Arthur. Henry II. left five hundred 
marks by his will for his burial in the Temple Church, but 
was also buried at Fontevrault. Gough considers that the 
tomb here may be that of William Plantagenet, fifth son of 
Henry 111., who died in infancy, and (according to Weaver) 
was buried in the Temple in 1256. 

In olden times the Round Church was the place where 
the lawyers used to meet their clients and — 

" Retain all kinds of witnesses 
That ply i' the Temple under trees ; 
Or walk the Round with Knights o* the Posts, 
About the cross-legg'd knights, their hosts." 

Hudibras, pt. iii. c, 3. 

Ben Jonson also speaks of this in the Alchemist. 

A staircase in the wall leads to the triforium of the 
Round Church, which is now filled with the tombs, foolishly 
removed from the chancel beneath. Worthy of especial 
notice is the coloured kneeling effigy of Martin, Recorder 
of London, and Reader of the Middle Temple, 161 5. 
Near this is the effigy — also coloured and under a canopy 
— of Edmund Plowden, the famous jurist, of whom Lord 
Elienborough said that "better authority could not be 

VOL. I. F 



66 WALKS IN LONDON, 

cited;" and referring to whom Fuller quaintly remarks, 
" How excellent a medley is made, when honesty and 
ability meet in a man of his profession ! " There is also a 
monument to James Howell (1594 — 1666), whose enter- 
taining letters, chiefly written from the Fleet, give many 
curious particulars relating to the reigns of James I. and 
Charles I. 

Opening upon the stairs leading to the triforium is a peni- 
tential cell (four feet six inches by two feet six inches) with 
slits towards the church, through which the prisoner, unable 
to lie down, could still hear mass. Here the unhappy 
Walter de Bacheler, Grand Preceptor of Ireland, was 
starved to death for disobedience to the Master of the 
Templars ; and hence probably it was that, with the severe 
discipline of the Templars, other culprits were dragged 
forth naked every Monday to be flogged publicly by the 
priest before the high altar. 

The Church (eighty-two feet long, fifty-eight wide, thirty- 
seven high), begun in 1185 and finished in 1240, is one of 
our most beautiful existing specimens of Early English 
Pointed architecture : " the roof springing, as it were, 
in a harmonious and accordant fountain, out of the 
clustered pillars that support its pinioned arches ; and 
these pillars, immense as they are, polished like so many 
gems."* In the ornaments of the ceiling the banner of the 
Templars is frequently repeated — black and white, " be- 
cause," says Fawyne, " the Templars showed themselves 
wholly white and fair towards the Christians, but black and 
terrible to them that were miscreants." The letters " Beau- 
sean " are for " Beauseant," their war-cry, 

• Hawtbome. 



THE TEMPLE CHURCH, 67 

In a dark hole to the left of the altar is the white marble 
monument of John Selden, 1654, called by Milton "the 
chief of learned men reputed in this land." The endless 
stream of volumes which he poured forth were filled with 
research and discrimination. Of these, his work " On the 
Law of Nature and of Nations " is described by Hallam as 
amongst the greatest achievements in erudition that any 
English writer has performed, but he is perhaps best known 
by his " Table Talk," of which Coleridge says, '* There is 
more weighty bullion sense in this book than I ever found 
in the same number of pages of any uninspired writer." 
His funeral sermon was preached here by Archbishop 
Usher, to whom he had said upon his death-bed, " I have 
surveyed most of the learning that is among the sons of 
men, but I cannot recollect any passage out of all my 
books and papers whereon I can rest my soul, save this 
from the sacred Scriptures : * The grace of God that bring- 
eth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, 
denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live 
soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world ; look- 
ing for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the 
great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ, who gave himself 
for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity.' " 

" Mr. Selden was a person whom no character can flatter, or trans- 
mit in any expressions equal to his merit and virtue. He was of such 
stupendous learning in aU kinds and in all languages, as may appear 
from his excellent and transcendent writings, that a man would have 
thought he had been entirely conversant among books, and had never 
spent an hour but in reading and writing ; yet his humanity, courtesy, 
and afFabihty were such that he would have been thought to have 
been bred in the best courts, but that his good-nature, charity, and 
delight in doing good and in commimicating all he knew exceeded that 
breeding." — Earl of Clarendon^ Life. 



68 WALKS IN LONDON, 

On the right of the choir, near a handsome marble 
piscina, is the eftigy of a bishop, usually shown as that of 
Heraclius, Patriarch of Jerusalem, by whom the church was 
consecrated, but he left England in a fury, after Henry II. 
refused to perform his vow of joining the Crusades in person, 
to atone for the murder of Becket. The figure more pro- 
bably represents Silverston de Eversdon, Bishop of Carlisle, 
1255. In the vestry are monuments to Lords Eldon and 
Stowell, and that of Lord Thurlow (1806) by Rossi. 

The organ, by Father Smydt or Smith, is famous from the 
long competition it underwent with one by Harris. Both 
were temporarily erected in the church. Blow and Purcell 
were employed to perform on that of Smith ; Battista Draghi, 
organist to Queen Catherine, on that of Harris. Immense 
audiences came to listen, but though the contest lasted a 
year, they could arrive at no decision. Finally, it was left 
to Judge Jefferies of the Inner Temple, who was a great 
musician, and who chose that of Smith. 

By the side of a paved walk leading along the north side 
of the church to the Master's House, is the simple monument 
of Oliver Goldsmith, who died April 9, 1774. It is only 
inscribed, " Here lies Oliver Goldsmith." 

" Let not his faults be remembered ; he was a very great man." — Dr, 
yohnson. 

" He died in the midst of a triumphant course. Every year that he 
lived would have added to his reputation." — Prof. Butler. 

" The wreath of Goldsmith is unsullied ; he wrote to exalt virtue and 
expose vice ; and he accomplished his task in a manner which raises 
him to the highest rank among British authors." — Sir Walter Scott, 

The preacher at the Temple is called "the Master," 
though he has no authority whatever, and can do nothing 
witnout permission from the Benchers. The " learned and 



THE MASTER'S HOUSE, TEMPLE, 69 

judicious " Hooker held the mastership and began to write 
his " Ecclesiastical Polity " here. '* It was a place," says 
Walton, "which he rather accepted than desired," and 
whence he wrote to Archbishop Whitgift, " I am weary of 
the noise and opposition of this place ; and, indeed, God 
and nature did not intend me for contentions, but for study 
and quietness. ... I shall never be able to finish what I 
have begun unless I be removed into some quiet parsonage, 
where I may see God's blessings spring out of mother earth, 
and eat my own bread in peace and privacy." Hooker's 
chair and table remain in the Master's House, which was 
built for William Sherlock, Dean of St. Paul's, and Master 
of the Temple. His successor was Dr. Thomas Sherlock, 
who held the mastership with the successive bishoprics of 
Bangor, Salisbury, and London. His residence here in 
1748, when the sees of Canterbury and London became 
vacant at the same time, occasioned the epigram — 

*' At the Temple one day, Sherlock taking a boat, 
The waterman asked him, ' Which way will you float ? ' 
* Which way ? ' says the Doctor ; ' why, fool, with the stream ! ' 
To St. Paul's or to Lambeth was aU one to him ; " 

and he was made Bishop of London. 

In the registers of the Temple, kept in the Master's 
House, perhaps the most interesting of many remarkable 
records is that which attests the marriage — the surreptitious 
marriage — of Mr. Sidney Godolphin with Margaret Blagg, 
the lady whose lovely and lovable life was portrayed 
by Evelyn and published by Wilberforce. The entry is not 
entered on the regular page, but pinned in afterwards, appa- 
rently when the event was made public, the lady having 
been previously provided with her " marriage lines." 



70 WALKS IN LONDON. 

The labyrinthine courts of the Temple are all replete with 
quaint associations. The Inner Temple is the least so. 
Most of it was destroyed by the great fire of 1666, which 
even "licked the windows" of the Temple Church, and 
what remained perished in the fire of January, 1678, when 
the Thames and the pumps were frozen so hard that no 
water could be obtained, and all the barrels of ale in the 
Temple cellars were used to feed the fire-engines. The old 
Inner Temple Hall of James I.'s time (where the last revel 
of the Inns of Court took place in 1733 when Mr. Talbot 
was made Lord Chancellor) was replaced in 1870 by a 
handsome perpendicular gothic hall from designs of Sidney 
Smirke. 

"At the Inner Temple, on certain grand occasions, it is customary 
to pass huge silver goblets (loving cups) down the table, filled with a 
delicious composition, immemoriaUy termed 'sack,' consisting of 
sweetened and exquisitely flavoured white wine : the butler attends its 
progress to replenish it, and each student is restricted to a sip. Yet 
it chanced not long since at the Temple, that, though the present 
number fell short of seventy, thirty-six quarts of the Hquid were con- 
sumed! " — Quarterly Review, 1836, No. IIO. 

Hare Court is so called from Nicholas Hare (1557), 
Master of the Rolls in the time of Mary I. Crown Office 
Row was the birthplace of Charles Lamb, who afterwards 
Hved in 4, Inner Temple Lane, whence he wrote, " The 
rooms are delicious, and Hare's Court trees come in at the 
window, so that it's like living in a garden." In 1800 Lamb 
moved again — 

"lam going to change my lodgings," he wrote, "I have partly 
fixed upon most delectable rooms, which look out (when you stand a 
lip-toe) over the Thames, and Surrey hills ; at the Upper end of King's 
Bench walk, in the Temple. There I shall have all the privacy of a 



THE TEMPLE. 



n 



honse withont the encumbrance, and shall be able to lock my friends 
out as often as I desire to hold free converse with any immortal mind. 
I shall be airy, up four pair of steps, as in the country ; and in a garden, 
in the midst of enchanting, more than Mahometan paradise, London, 
whose dirtiest, drab-frequected alley, and her lowest bowing tradesman, 
I would not exchange for Skiddaw, HelveUyn, James, Walter, and the 
parson into the bargain." 

It was in King's Bench IVaik that William Murray, after- 
wards Earl of Mansfield, had chambers (No. 5), and here 
that he was visited as client by Sarah, Duchess of Marl- 
borough, who came late in the evening, and was disgusted 
at finding him gone out to a supper party. " I could not 
tell who she was," said the servant, reporting her visit, " for 
she would not tell me her name, but she swore so dreadfully 
that I am sure she must be a lady of quality." 

In Tanfield Court, on this side of the Temple, old 
Mrs. Duncomb with her companion Elizabeth Harrison 
and her maid Anne Price, were murdered in 1732 by 
Sarah Malcolm, a washerwoman of the Temple, who 
having, after her execution in Fleet Street (opposite Mitre 
Court) been buried against all rules in St. Sepulchre's 
churchyard, was dug up again, and is now exhibited as a 
skeleton at the Botanic Garden at Cambridge. She was 
extremely handsome, and, two days before her execution, 
she dressed up in scarlet and sate to Hogarth for her 
portrait. Immediately above Tanfield Court, adjoining 
what is now the Master's Garden, stood the old refectory of 
the knights, only pulled down within the last few years. 

Turning to the Middle Temple, it will be interesting to 
remember that Chaucer was one of its students in the reign 
of Edward III., and, while here, gave a sound thrashing to 
a Franciscan friar wno insulted him in Fleet Street. On 



72 WALKS IN LONDON. 

the first floor of No. 2, Brick Court, lived the learned 

Blackstone, and here in his " Farewell to the Muse," after 

bidding a fond adieu to the woods and streams of his youth 

he wrote — 

** Then welcome business, welcome strife. 
Welcome the cares, the thorns of life, 
The visage wan, the pmrblind sight. 
The toil by day, the lamp by night. 
The tedious forms, the solemn prate, 
The pert dispute, the dull debate. 
The drowsy bench, the babbling hall, — 
For thee, fair Justice ! welcome all ! " 

Here the great lawyer was soon immersed in writing the 
fourth volume of his famous Commentaries ; but in his cal- 
culation of the trials of legal life, there was one which he 
had not foreseen. Oliver Goldsmith had taken the rooms 
above him, and sorely was he disturbed by the roaring 
comic songs in which the author of " The Vicar of Wake- 
field " was wont to indulge, and by the frantic games of 
blind-man's-buff which preceded his supper-parties, and the 
dancing which followed them.* Here Sir Joshua Reynolds, 
coming in suddenly, found the poet engaged in furiously 
kicking round the room a parcel containing a masquerade 
dress which he had ordered and had no money to pay for ; 
and here, on April 9, 1774, poor Goldsmith died, from 
taking too many James's powders, when he had been for- 
bidden to do so by his doctor — died, dreadfully in debt, 
though attended to the grave by numbers of the poor in the 
neighbourhood, to whom he had never failed in kindness 
and charity — "mourners without a home, without domesti- 
city of any kind, with no friend but him they had come to 

• He topk and furnished these rooms with ;C400 received for "The Good- 
natureii Man." 



THE FOUNTAIN COURT, 



73 



weep for; outcasts of the great, solitary, wicked city, to 
whom he had never forgotten to be kind and charitable." 

The pleasantest part of the Middle Temple is the 
Fountain Cowt, with its little fountain, low enough now, but 
which. Sir Christopher Hatton says, sprang " to a vast and 




Fountain Court, Temple. 



almost incredible altitude " in his time. It is commemorated 
in a poem of L. E. L. (Miss Landon), with the lines — 

" The fountain's low singing is heard in the wind, 
Like a melody, bringing sweet fancies to mind ; 
Some to grieve, some to gladden ; around them they cast 
The hopes of the moiTOw, the dreams of the past. 
Away in the distance is heard the far sound 
From the streets of the city that compass it round, 
Like the echo of mountains or ocean's deep call ; 
Yet that fountain's low singing is heard over all." 



74 WALKS IN LONDON. 

Charles Dickens has left a pretty description of Ruth 
Pinch going to meet her lover in this court — " coming 
briskly up, with the best little laugh upon her face that 
ever played in opposition to the fountain, and beat it all 
to nothing ; " and how, when John Westlock came at last — 
*' merrily the fountain leaped and danced, and merrily the 
smiling dimples twinkled and expanded more and more, 
until they broke into a laugh against the basin's rim and 
vanished." 

In this court is the Middle Temple Hall, an admirable 
Elizabethan building (of 1572) with a screen, which is very 
handsome, though it is not, as is often said, made from 
the spoils of the Spanish Armada, being thirteen years 
earlier in date. The order of the military monks is pre- 
served here during dinner, the Benchers on the dais repre- 
senting the knights, the Barristers the priors or brethren, 
the Students the novices. The old Cow's Horn is pre- 
served, by the blowing of which the Benchers used to be 
summoned to dinner. It is a fact worth notice as showing 
the habits of these Benchers in former days, that when 
the floor of the Middle Temple Hall was taken up in 1764, 
no less than a hundred pair of (very small) dice were found 
beneath it, having slipped through between the ill-adjusted 
boards. In the time of Elizabeth the Benchers were so quar- 
relsome a body that an edict was passed that no one should 
come into hall with other weapons than a sword or a 
dagger ! The feasts of Christmas, Halloween, Candlemas, 
and Ascension were formerly kept here with great splendour, 
a regular Master of the Revels being elected, and the 
Lord Chancellor, Judges, and Benchers opening the sports 
by dancing solemnly three times around the sea-coal fire. 



MIDDLE TEMPLE HALL. 75 

•* Full oft within the spacious walls, 
When he had fifty winters o'er him, 
My grave Lord-Keeper led the brawls ; 
The seal and maces danced before him." 

This dance called forth many satires — especially from 
Buckingham in his play of The Rehearsal, from Prior in 
his Alma, and Dr. Donne in his Satires. In Pope's 
Dunciad we find — 

"The judge to dance, his brother seijeant calls." 

In this Hall Shakspeare's Twelfth Night, or What you 
Will, was performed soon after its production, Feb. 2, 
1601 ; and it is probably the only remaining building in 
which one of his plays was seen by his contemporaries. 
Sir John Davys was expelled the Society for thrashing his 
friend Mr. Richard Martin (the Bencher to whom Ben 
Jonson dedicated his " Poetaster ") in this hall during 
dinner. 

" Truly it is a most magnificent apartment ; very lofty, so lofty, 
indeed, that the antique oak roof is quite hidden, as regards all its 
details, in the sombre gloom that broods under its rafters. The hall is 
lighted by four great windows, on each of the two sides, descending 
half-way from the ceiling to the floor, leaving all beneath enclosed by 
oaken panelling, which, on three sides, is carved with escutcheons of 
such members of the society as have held the office of reader. There 
is likewise, in a large recess or transept, a great window, occupying the 
full height of the hall and splendidly emblazoned with the arms of 
the Templars who have attained to the dignity of Chief- Justices. The 
other windows are pictured, in like manner, with coats of arms of local 
dignities connected with the Temple ; and besides all these there are 
arched lights, high towards the roof, at either end, full of richly and 
chastely coloured glass, and all the illumination of that great hall came 
through those glorious panes, and they seemed the richer for the 
sombreness in which we stood. I cannot describe, or even intimaie, 
the effect of this transparent glory, glowing down upon us in the 
gloomy depth of the hall." — Hawthorne, English Note-Books. 



76 WALKS IN LONDON. 

The expression "moot (mot) point" comes from the 
custom of proposing difficult points of law for discussion 
during dinner, which was formerly observed in the halls of 
the Inns of Court. 

Near the Hall is the New Library erected by H, H. 
Abraham. Its garden has a tree — Catalpa Syringifolia — 
said to have been planted by Sir Matthew Hale. 

Three Sun-Dials in the Temple have mottoes. That in 
Temple Lane, " Pereunt et imputantur ; " that in Essex 
Court, " Vestigia nulla retrorsum ; " that in Brick Court, 
" Time and Tide tarry for no man." 

"I was bom, and passed the first seven years of my life, in the 
Temple. Its church, its halls, its gardens, its fountain, its river, I had 
almost said — for in those young years, what was this king of rivers 
to me but a stream that watered our pleasant places ! — these are my 
oldest recollections. . . . What an antique air had the now almost 
effaced sun-dials, with their moral inscriptions, seeming coevals with 
that Time which they measured, and to take their revelations of its 
flight immediately from heaven, holding correspondence with the 
fountain of light ! How would the dark line steal imperceptibly on, 
watched by the eye of childhood, eager to detect its movement, never 
catched, nice as an evanescent cloud, or the first arrests of sleep ! 
Ah, yet doth beauty like a dial-hand 
Steal from his figure, and no pace perceived ! " 

Charles Lamb, 

The Temple Garden is the place where Shakspeare 
makes the partisans of the Houses of York and Lancaster 
first choose a red and white rose as their respective badges. 

" Suffolk. Within the Temple Hall we were too loud ; 
The garden here is more convenient. . . . 
Plantagenet. Let him that is a true-bom gentleman, 
And stands upon the honour of his birth, 
If he suppose that I have pleaded tmth, 
From off this briar pluck a white rose with me. 



THE TEMPLE GARDENS, 11 

Somerset. Let him that is no coward, nor no flatterer, 
But dare maintain the party of the truth, 
Pluck a red rose from off this thorn with me. . . . 

Plantage^et. Hath not thy rose a canker, Somerset ? 

Somerset. Hath not thy rose a thorn, Plantagenet ? , , , . 

Warwick. This brawl to-day, 

Grown to this faction in the Temple Gardens, 
Shall send, between the red rose and the white, 
A thousand souls to death and deadly night." 

First Part of Henry VI. Act it. sc. 4. 

There are charming views of the river — the busy silent 
highway, from the gardens, though on Lord Mayor's Day 
you can no longer 

" Stand in Temple Gardens, and behold 
London herself on her proud stream afloat ; 
For so appears this fleet of magistracy, 
Holding due course to Westminster." 

Shakspeare's Henry V. 

No roses will live now in the smoke-laden air, but the 
gardens are still famous for their autumnal show of Chry- 
santhemums, the especial flowers of the Temple. Near a 
dial given by *'Henricus Wynne, Londini, 1770," are the 
remains of a sycamore of Shakspeare's days. 

" So, O Benchers, may the Winged Horse, your ancient badge and 
cognisance, still flourish ! So may future Hookers and Seldens illustrate 
your church and chambers ! So may the sparrow, in default of more 
melodious quiristers, unpoisoned hop about your walks ! So may the 
fresh-coloured and cleanly nursery-maid, who, by leave, airs her playful 
charge in your stately gardens, drop her prettiest blushing curtsy as ye 
pass, reductive of juvenescent emotion ! So may the younkers of this 
generation eye you, pacing your stately terrace, with the same, super- 
stitious veneration, with which the child Elia gazed on the Old 
Worthies that solemnised the parade before ye." — Charles Lamb. 

Opposite the Temple, occupying a space of eight acres, 
in the clearance of which as many as thirty wretched 



78 WALKS IN LONDON. 

courts and alleys were removed, the N'ew Law Courts 
are rising, with a front four hundred and eighty-three 
feet in length towards the Strand and Fleet Street. 
They are built in the Decorated style from designs of 
G. E. Street. R.A., with the view of uniting all the 
principal Law Courts (hitherto divided between Lin- 
coln's Inn and Westminster) upon one site, and they 
promise to form one of the handsomest piles of building 
in London. 

A little farther down Fleet Street is the entrance of 
Chancery Lane, a long winding street where the great 
Lord Strafford was bom (1593) and where Izaak Walton, 
"the father of angling," lived as a London linen-draper 
{1627 — 1644). Pope says — 

** Long Chancery Lane retentive rolls the sound." 

The Lane and its surrounding streets have a peculiar 
legal traffic of their own, and abound in wig makers, strong- 
box makers, and law stationers and booksellers. In 
former times when the Inns of Court were more like 
colleges at Oxford and Cambridge, and when the students 
which belonged to them lived together within their walls, 
dined together, and shared the same exercises and amuse- 
ments, the Inns of Court always had Inns of Chancery 
annexed to them. These were houses where the younger 
students underwent a course of preparation for the greater 
freedom of the colleges of the Inns of Court, to which, 
says Jeaffreson, in his " Book about Lawyers," they bore 
much the same position as Eton bears towards King's 
College at Cambridge, or Winchester to New College at 
Oxford. Now the Inns of Chancery are comparative 



CLIFFORD'S JNN. 79 

solitudes : readers of Dickens will recollect the vivid de- 
scriptions of Symond's Inn in "Bleak House." 

On the right of Chancery Lane, behind St. Dunstan's 
Church, are the dark brick courts of Serjeatits' /«;/, originally 
intended only for judges and the serjeants-at-law who 
derive their name from the Fratres Servientes of the Knights 
Templars. The Serjeants still address each other as brothers. 
The degree of Serjeant is the highest attainable in the 
faculty of law, and indispensable for a seat on the judicial 
bench. The buildings were sold in 1877, and the little Hall 
(38 ft. by 21) and Chapel (31 ft. by 20) — both with richly 
stained windows — will probably ere long be pulled down. 

The courts of Serjeants' Inn join those of the earliest 
foundation of those Inns of Chancery which we have been 
describing, Clifford's Inn (entered from Fetter Lane), 
which is so called because the land on which it stands was 
devised in the reign of Edward II. (1310) to " our beloved 
and faithful Robert de CHfiford." It was in the hall of 
Clifford's Inn that Sir Matthew Hale and seventeen other 
judges sate after the Great Fire to adjudicate upon the 
perplexed claims of landlords and tenants in the destroyed 
houses — a task which they accomplished so much to the 
satisfaction of every one concerned that their portraits are 
all preserved in Guildhall in honour of patient justice. 

Farther down Chancery Lane, on the same side, is an 
old dingy courtyard containing the Rolls Court and Chapel, 
The latter was originally built in the time of Henry III., 
but rebuilt by Inigo Jones in 16 17, when Dr. Donne 
preached the consecration sermon. Bishop Atterbury and 
Bishop Butler were Preachers at the Rolls, and also Bishop 
Burnet, who was dismissed on account of the offence given 



8o 



WALKS IN LONDON. 



to King and Court, by his preaching a sermon here on the 
text, " Save me from the Uon's mouth ; thou hast heard me 
from the horns of the unicorns." 

It is httle known that within the walls of this ugly chapel 
is one of the noblest pieces of sculpture which England 
possesses, a tomb which may be compared for beauty with 
the famous monuments of Francesco Albergati at Bologna, 



r'^^^yM 




The Torregiano Tomb, Rolls Chapel. 



and of Bernardo Guigni in the Badia at Florence. The 
visitor will at once be struck by the contrast of the tomb 
of Dr. John Young, Master of the Rolls in the time of 
Henry VIII., with the usual types of English monuments. 
The aged Master reposes in the most sublime serenity of 
death upon a sarcophagus, shaped like a Florentine "bride- 
chest," within a circular arch, on the back of which the 



THE ROLLS CHAPEL. 8l 

half figure of the Saviour rises in low relief between two 
cherubim. In the panel of the pedestal beneath is the in- 
scription and the date mdxvi. The whole is the work of the 
immortal Torregiano, who was the sculptor- of Henry VI I. 's 
tomb, and words would fail to give an idea of the infinite 
repose which he has here given to the venerable features of 
the dead. Another stately monument on the same side 
of the chapel commemorates Lord Bruce of Kinloss (1610), 
who was sent to open a secret correspondence with Cecil, 
under the pretence of congratulating Elizabeth on the 
failure of the revolt under Lord Essex, and who was after- 
wards rewarded by James I. with the Mastership of the 
Rolls. In front kneel his four children. The eldest son, 
in armour, was the Lord Bruce of Kinloss who was killed 
in a duel with Sir Edward Sackville. On the opposite side 
of the altar is the tomb of Sir Richard Allington, of Horse- 
heath (1561): he kneels with his wife at an altar on 
which their three daughters are represented. Amongst other 
Masters buried here are Sir John Strange, of whom Pennant 
gives the punning epitaph — 

" Here lies an honest lawyer, that is — Strange," 

and Sir John Trevor, Speaker of the House of Commons, 
who was compelled to pronounce his own conviction and 
dismissal for bribery. On the windows are the arms of 
Sir Harbottle Grimston (1594 — 1683), Master of the Rolls. 

«« He was a just judge : very slow, and ready to hear any thing that 
was offered, without passion or partiality. He was a very pious and 
devout man, and spent at least an hour in the morning and as much 
at night in prayer and meditation. And even in winter, when he was 
obliged to be very early on the bench, he took care to rise so soon that 
he had always the command of that time, which he gave to those 
exercises." — Burnet. 



S2 



WALKS IN LONDOM. 



Chichester Rents, the name of a wretched court on the 
left of Chancery Lane, still commemorates the town-house 
of the Bishops of Chichester, built in 1228 by Bishop Ralph 
Nevill, Chancellor in the time of Henry III. 

On the left of the lane is the noble brick Gateway of 
Lincoln's Inn, bearing the date 15 18, and adorned with the 
arms of Sir Thomas Lovell, by whom it was built in the 




Gateway, Lincoln's Inn. 



reign of Henry VHI. It is ornamented by inlaid brickwork 
of different colours, in the style of Hampton Court, and is 
the only example remaining in London, except the gate of 
St. James's. Stretching along the front of the Inn, on the 
interior, are a number of curious towers and gables with 
pointed doorways and Tudor windows, forming, with the 
chapel opposite upon its raised arches, one of the most 
picturesque architectural groups in London. It is upon this 



LINCOLN'S INN 83 

gateway that Fuller describes Ben Jonson as working mth 
his Horace in one hand, and a trowel in the other, when 
" some gentlemen pitying that his parts should be buried 
under the rubbish of so mean a calling, did of their bounty 
manumize him freely to follow his own ingenious inclina- 
tions." But the generation which can delight in the Albert 
Hall and the Albert Memorial has no admiration to spare 
for these grand relics of architects who knew their business, 
and, unless opinion speedily interferes to protect it, the 
gateway of Lincoln's Inn will share the fate of Northum- 
berland House, the Burlington Portico, and the Tabard, 
for it is doomed to be pulled down ! 

The name Lincoln's Inn came from Henry de Lacy, Earl of 
Lincoln, ob, 13 12, whose town-house once occupied its site. 
Its courtyards have a greater look of antiquity than those 
of the Temple. On the left of the ground-floor, at No. 24 
in the " Old Buildings " were the rooms of Oliver Cromwell's 
secretary Thurloe from 1645 to 1659, where his correspond- 
ence was discovered behind a false ceiling. There is a 
tradition that the Protector came thither one day to discuss 
with Thurloe the plot of Sir Richard Willis for seizing 
the persons of the three princes, sons of Charles I. Having 
disclosed his plans, he discovered Thurloe's clerk apparently 
asleep upon his desk. Fearing treason, he would have 
killed him on the spot, but Thurloe prevented him, and 
after passing a dagger repeatedly over his unflinching coun- 
tenance he was satisfied that the clerk was really asleep. 
He was not asleep, however, and had heard everything, 
and found means to warn the princes. 

Two of the old gables have sun*dials with the mottoes — 
" Qua redit, nescitis horam," — '* Ex hoc momento pendet 



84 



WALKS IN LONDON. 



seternitas." The Perpendicular Chapel, at the right of the 
entrance, was built from designs of Inigo Jones, and is 
raised upon arches, which form a kind of crypt, open at the 
sides, where Pepys went " to walk under the chapel, by 
agreement." The stained windows are remarkably good ; 
they represent different saints, and it is not to be wondered 
at that Archbishop Laud thought it odd that so much 




Chapel and Gateway, Lincoln's Inni 

abuse should be raised against his windows at Lambeth, 
while these passed unnoticed, yet would not speak of it lest 
he should " thereby set some furious spirit on work to 
destroy those harmless goodly windows to the just dislike 
of that worthy society." The chapel bell was taken by the 
Earl of Essex, at Cadiz, in 1596. William Prynne, the- 
Puritan, was buried here. Dr. Donne, Usher, Tillotson, 
Warburton, and Heber were preachers of Lincoln's Inn. 



LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS, 85 

In the porch is a monument to Spencer Perceval (murdered 

May II, 18 1 2), Attorney-General and Treasurer of Lmcoln's 

Inn. 

Crossing one end of the old-fashioned brick square of 

New InUj we reach a handsome group of brick buildings by 

Hardwicke^ 1843-45, comprising the Hall and the Library. 

In the former are a great fresco by G. F, Watts (1854-59), 

representing " The Origin of Legislation," Hogarth! s picture 

of Paul before Felix, and a fine statue of Lord Eldon by 

Westmacott, The latter contains a valuable collection of 

manuscripts, chiefly bequeathed by Sir Matthew Hale. One 

of the curious customs, preserved till lately at Lincoln's 

Inn, was that a servant went to the outer hall door and 

shouted three times " Venez manger" at twelve o'clock, 

when there was nothing on the table. 

The ancient 

" Walks of Lincoln's Inn 
Under the elms," 

mentioned by Ben Jonson have perished ; but Lincoln's 
Lnn Fields, " perplexed and troublous valley of the shadow 
of the Law," as Dickens calls it, is still the largest and 
shadiest square in London, and was laid out by Inigo 
Jones. Its dimensions have been erroneously stated to 
be the same as those of the great pyramid, which are much 
larger. The square was only railed off in 1735, ^^^ ^^"^ 
then bore a very evil reputation. Gay says — 

" Where Lincoln's Inn, wide space, is rail'd around, 
Cross not with venturous step ; there oft is found 
The lurking thief, who, while the daylight shone, 
Made the walls echo with his begging tone : 
That crutch, which late compassion mov'd, shall wound 
Thy bleeding head, and fell thee to the giound. 



86 WALKS IN LONDON. 

Though thou art tempted by the linkman's call, 
Yet trust him not along the lonely wall ; 
In the mid-way he'U quench the flaming brand. 
And share the booty with the pilfering band, 
Still keep the public streets where oily rays 
Shot from the crystal lamp o'erspread the ways." 

It was here (Sept. 20 and 21, 1586) that Babington and 
other conspirators for Mary, Queen of Scots, were '* hanged, 
bowelled, and quartered, even in the place where they used 
to meet and conferre of their traiterous purposes." Here, 
also, the brave and upright WilHam, Lord Russell, unjustly 
suffered for alleged high treason, attended by Tillot«5on and 
Burnet on the scaffold. 

" His whole behaviour looked like a triumph over death. ... He 
parted with his lady with a composed silence : and as soon as she was 
gone, he said to me, 'The bitterness of death is passed;' for he loved 
and esteemed her beyond expression, as she weU deserved it in all re- 
spects. She had the command of herself so much that at parting she 
gave him no disturbance. . . . Some of the crowd that filled the 
streets wept, while others insulted ; he was touched with the tender- 
ness that the one gave him, but did not seem at all provoked by the 
other. He was singing psalms a great part of the way ; and said, he 
hoped to sing better very soon. As he observed the great crowds of 
people all the way, he said, I hope I shall quickly see a much better 
assembly. ... He laid his head on the block, vnthout the least change 
of countenance : and it was cut off at two strokes." — Burnet. 

On the north side of the square, beyond the handsome 
Inns of Court Hotel, is (No. 13) the eccentric Soane Mu- 
seum, formed in his own house and bequeathed to the 
nation by Sir John Soane {pb. 1837), who was the son of a 
bricklayer at Reading, but, being distinguished as a student 
in the Royal Academy, and sent to Rome with the Academy 
pension, lived to become the architect of the Bank of Eng- 
land. The museum, which Mrs. Jameson calls "a fairy 



THE SOANE MUSEUM, 87 

palace of virtu^' was especially intended by its founder to 
illustrate the artistic and instructive purposes to which it is 
possible to devote an English private residence, and is 
open to the public from ten to four on Wednesdays, Thurs- 
days, and Fridays. Few people know of it, and fewer visit it, 
which is much to be regretted, since, though, as Dr. Waagen 
says, the over-crowded and labyrinthine house leaves an 
impression as of a feverish dream, it contains, together with 
much rubbish, several most interesting pictures. 

Room I. 

Sir y. Reynolds. " The Snake in the Grass " or " Love unloosing 
the zone of Beauty " — bought at the Marchioness of Thomond's sale. 
In very bad condition. 

Sir T. Lawrence. Portrait of Sir John Soane. 

Room II.— {Right.) 

Canaletto. The Grand Canal at Venice — a glorious picture, full of 
light and air, with sparkling waves and animated figures— so different 
to the wooden abortions usually attributed to this injured artist, that 
few can be said to have made his acquaintance, who have not looked 
upon it. From the Fonthill collection. 

Hogarth. The Election. A series of four pictures. 

1. The E ntertainff lent. It is the end of the feast. The mayor is 
seized with apoplexy from a surfeit of oysters and the barber is 
bleeding him in vain. A candidate is flattering an old woman. A 
crowd of the opposing faction have thrown brickbats into the room, 
one of which has struck a lawyer on the head. A virago resents the 
refusal of a bribe by her tailor husband, whose son exhibits his need 
of it by showing his worn-out shoe. 

2. The Canvassing. Bribery is exhibited in all its forms. In the 
background is the Excise Office. Hogarth's quaint wit is shown in 
the man at the end of the beam to which the crown is suspended, 
busily engaged in sawing it down, forgetful that he must fall with it. 

3. The Polling. The rival candidates are seated in a booth to 
leceive votes. A Chelsea pensioner is objected to by a lawyer, 
because he cannot lay his right hand, but only a stump, on the book. 
A man is bawUng into the ear of another who is deaf the uame of the 



88 WALKS IN LONDON. 

person he is to vote for. A dying man is carried to vote in blankets. 
In the background is Britannia upsetting in her coach, while her 
servants are playing cards on the box. 

4. The Chairing of the Successful Candidate. The new Member, 
represented by Bubb Doddington, is in danger of being upset in his chair, 
one of his bearers having had his head broken by the club of a country- 
man who is fighting with a Greenwich pensioner. The tailor of the 
former scene is beaten by his wife ; an old woman is thrown down 
amongst the pigs. In the midst of the confusion the cooks are carrying 
in the dinners. 

*• Hogarth painted life as he saw it. He gives no visions of by-gone 
things — no splendid images of ancient manners ; he regards neither the 
historian's page nor the poet's song. He was contented with the 
occiurences of the passing day — with the folly or the vice of the hour ; 
to the garb and fashion of the moment, however, he adds story and 
sentiment for all time." — Allan Cunningham, 

Room III. — {Breakfast Room.) 

Francesco Gotna. Portrait of Napoleon, 1797. 
Isabey, Miniature of Napoleon, painted at Elba. 

Upper Floor. 

Hogarth. The Rake's Progress, a series of eight pictures. 

1. The Rake comes into his Fortune. The accumiilations of the 
relation whose fortune he has inherited are displayed, while the starved 
cat and the woman bringing chips to the empty grate refer to the 
penury in which the miser has lived. The heir, an empty-headed lout, 
is being measured for fine clothes. A girl whom he has seduced, 
accompanied by her mother, with her lap full of love-letters, vainly 
seeks the fulfilment of his promises. A villainous attorney, who has 
been employed in making an inventory, is stealing a bag of gold from 
the table. 

2. The Levee of the Rake. His chamber is crowded with syco- 
phants, and persons seeking his patronage. Amongst the portraits 
introduced are those of Dubois the fencing-master, Figg the prize- 
fighter, and Bridgeman the king's gardener. 

3. The Orgies of the Rake. A woman picks the pocket of the 
drunken rake of his watch which she hands to an accomplice. On 
the floor are the lanthom and staff of a watchman with whom he has 
been fighting. Everything indicates the most vicious dissipation. 
The harlot in the background, setting fire to the world, is peculiarly 
Hogarthian. 



THE SOANE MUSEUM. 89 

4. The Arrest of the Rake, He is arrested in his sedan chair, when 
he is going to court on the queen's birthday, indicated by the leek in 
the Welshman's cocked hat (St. David's Day being the birthday of 
Queen Caroline). St. James's Palace is seen in the background, with 
White's Chocolate House, where the Rake has probably completed 
his ruin at the gaming-table. The lamplighter, while gaping at the 
ixcene beneath, lets his oil stream down on the Rake's peruke. A 
touch of human sympathy is shown in the neglected girl of the first 
pictxire, who appears here as having redeemed the past, and who, 
accidentally seeing her faithless lover in trouble, offers her purse to 
save him. 

5. The Marriage of the Rake. Discharged by the assistance of the 
girl he has injured, the Rake again deserts her to redeem his fortunes 
by marrying a hideous but rich old woman. While placing the ring 
upon her finger, h« leers at her maid in the background. The 
neglected girl and her mother try to forbid the marriage, but are 
ejected from the church by the pew-opener. The absurdity of the 
courtship is parodied in that of the two dogs in the background. The 
scene is the old Church of Marylebone, then (1735) in the country and 
the resort of couples seeking to be privately married — the Command- 
ments are cracked across, the Creed is effaced, the poor-box is covered 
with cobwebs ; aU is significant. 

6. The Rake at the Gambling Table. At White's (where the inci- 
dent of the fire pourtrayed here really occurred in 1 733), the Rake 
loses the second fortune for which he has sold himself. 

7. The Rake m Prison. The Rake is seated in despair, his wife is 
cursing him ; only the girl whose early affections he won, remains kind, 
and comes to visit him, but faints on seeing his misery. A rejected 
tragedy by which he has tried to obtain money Hes upon the table. 
In contrast to this scene of poverty, an alchemyst is at work in the 
background. 

8. The Rake in Bedlam. Having reached the last stage of degrada- 
tion, we see the Rake, naked and shaven, still sustained by the one 
firiend who has refused to desert him. All phases of madness— the 
man who thinks himself an astronomer— the man who thinks himself a 
king, the melancholy madness of rehgion, the simpering idiocy of love 
— are introduced ; and to visit and ridicule them, as was then per- 
mitted, come two fine ladies. 

The Other pictures here are unimportant. We may 
notice — 

Turner. Van Tromp's barge entering the Texei. 



9U WALICS IN LONDON. 

W. Hilton (1786— 1839). Marc Antony reading Caesar's will. 
Sir C, Eastlake (1793-1865). The Cave of Despair. 

In the dimly-lit under chambers, surrounded by an extra- 
ordinary and heterogeneous collection, is the magnificent 
sarcophagus of Osiris, father of Rameses the Great, dis- 
covered by Belzoni (181 6) in the valley of Behan el 
Malook. It is covered with hieroglyphics, and is cut out 
of a single block of the substance called by mineralogists 
aragonite. 

The beautifully-illuminated manuscripts of this museum are 
well deserving of study, the finest being the Commentary 
on St. Paul's Epistles by Cardinal Marino Grimani, Patri- 
arch of Aquileja, with exquisite miniatures by Giulio 
Clovio. Amongst other literary curiosities preserved 
here, is the original MS. of the Gerusalemme Liberata 
of Tasso. 

At the north-western corner of Lincoln's Inn Fields is 
Newcastle House (with a double staircase to its entrance), 
built in 1686 by the Marquis of Powis, who followed James II. 
into exile, and was created Duke of Powis by him. It was 
inhabited by the insignificant prime minister of George II.'s 
reign, the Duke of Newcastle, of whom Lord Wilming- 
ton said, "he loses half an hour every morning, and runs 
after it all the rest of the day, without being able to over- 
take it." Now it is occupied by the Society for the 
Promotion of Christian Knowledge. 

In Greai Queen Street, which leads from hence into Long 
Acre, Lord Herbert of Cherbury lived, and wrote the first 
part of his " De Veritate," — " justly deemed inimical to 
every positive religion." * 

• Hallam, "Lit. Hist, of Europe." 



LINDSEY HOUSE. 9I 

" In Great Queen Street Sir Godfrey Kneller lived next door to Dr. 
Ratcliffe ; Kneller was fond of flowers, and had a fine collection. As 
there was great intimacy between him and the physician, he permitted 
the latter to have a door into his garden, but RatchfFe's servants 
gathering and destroying the flowers, Kneller sent him word he must 
shut the door. RatclilTe replied peevishly, * Tell him he may do 
anything with it but paint it.' — 'And I,' answered Sir Godfrey, 
'can take anything from him but physic.'" — Walpole' s Anecdotes of 
Painting. 

Nos. 55 and 56 are good specimens of street house archi- 
tecture. The fleur de lis, which till lately might be seen 
on the fronts of some of the houses on the south of Great 
Queen Street, was in compliment to Henrietta-Maria, after 
whom it was named. 

On the west side of Lincoln's Inn Fields, No. 59, 
Lindsey House, afterwards Ancaster House (marked by its little 
semi-circular portico), was built by Robert Bertie, Earl of 
Lindsey, Charles the First's general, who fell in the battle 
of Edgehill. Close to a low massive archway, leading 
into Duke Street, is the Sardinian Chapel^ built in 
1648, the year before Charles I. was beheaded, being the 
oldest foundation now in the hands of Roman Catholics 
in London. It was partially destroyed in the Gordon 
Riots, when Protestantism hung a cat dressed in priestly 
vestments to the lamp-post in front of it, with the holy 
wafer in its paws. It is the church frequented by the 
Savoyard organ boys whc>live on Saffron Hill. 

In a house opposite the chapel Benjamin Franklin lived 
in 1725, when he was a journeyman printer in the office of 
Mr. Watts in Great Wild Street. He lodged with a Roman 
Catholic widow lady and her daughter, to whom he paid a 
rent of 3s. 6d. a week. When kept at home by the gout 
he was frequently asked to spend the evenings with his 



93 WALKS IN LONDON. 

landlady. "Our supper," he says in his autobiography, 
" was only half an anchovy each, on a very little slice of 
bread and butter, and half a pint of ale between us : but 
the entertainment was in her conversation." In the upper 
floor of the same house lived — on water-gruel only — a 
Roman Catholic maiden lady of fortune, as if in a nunnery, 
spending £12 z. year on herself, and giving away all the 
rest of her estate. While he worked in Great Wild Street, 
Franklin relates that he only drank water, while the other 
workmen, some fifty in number, were great beer-drinkers ; 
but he used to be much stronger, and could carry far 
greater weights than his companions, which greatly excited 
their surprise against him whom they called the " Water- 
American." 

[Great Wild Street (right) takes its name from Humphrey 
Wild, Lord Mayor in 1608. Wild House was afterwards 
the Spanish Embassy, and the ambassador escaped with 
difficulty by its back door in the anti-papal riots under 
James II. The site of the house is now occupied by a 
Baptist Chapel, where a sermon is annually preached on 
the great storm of Nov. 26, 1763, in which more than 800 
houses were laid in ruins in London alone. 

Duke Street and Prince's Street lead into Drury Latu^ 
one of the great arteries of the parish of St. Clement Danes, 
an aristocratic part of London in the time of the Stuarts.* 
It takes its name from Drury House, built by Sir William 
Drury in the time of Henry VIII. From the Drury s it passed 
into the hands of William, Lord Craven, who (the grandson 
of a Yorkshire carrier's boy who rose to be Lord Mayor) was 
so celebrated in the wars of Gustavus Adolphus. He 

* ilie Ducness of Ormond was living in Great Wild Street in 1655. 



DRURY LANE, 



93 



rebuilt Drury House, which was for a short time the resi- 
dence of the unfortunate Elizabeth, Queen of Bohemia, to 
whom he always showed the most chivalrous devotion, and 
who is sometimes beHeved to have become his wife, though 
twelve years his senior. Here he heroically staid during 
the great Plague, which began in Drury Lane, and, at the 
hazard of his life, assisted in preserving order amidst 




The Old House in Drury Lane. 



the terrors of the time. He is still commemorated in 
Crave?t Bui/dings, where a fresco, now quite obliterated, 
long represented him, riding on his white charger. Near 
the entrance of Drury Lane from the Strand, on the left, an 
old house, now a Mission House, still exists, which stood in 
the Lane, with the old house of the Drurys, before the 
street was built. 



94 WALKS IN LONDON. 

Aubrey mentions that the Duchess of Albemarle, wife of 
General Monk, was daughter of one of the five female 
barbers of Drury Lane, celebrated in the ballad— 

" Did you ever hear the like, 
Or ever hear the fame. 
Of five women barbers 

That Hved in Drury Lane ?" 

This was the " plain and homely dowdy " — the " ill-look'd 
woman" of Pepys. The respectability of Drury Lane 
began to wane at the end of the seventeenth century, and 
Gay's lines, 

*' Oh may thy virtue guard thee through the roads 
Of Drury 's mazy courts and dark abodes ! " 

are still as applicable as when they were written, 

Drury Lane Theatre was first opened in 1674 with an 
address by Dryden, who extolled the advantages of its then 
country-situation over those of "the Duke's Theatre" in 
Dorset Gardens — 

" Our House relieves the ladies fi-om the frights 
Of ill-paved streets and long dark winter nights." 

The burning of the theatre (Feb. 24, 1809) is ren- 
dered memorable by the pubUcation of the "Rejected 
Addresses," * the famous jeu d'esprit of James and Horace 
Smith, the " very best imitations," says Lord Jeffrey (and 
often of difficult originals), " that ever were made," but ot 
which Murray refused to buy the copyright for ^£20.] 

At the south-west angle of Lincoln's Inn Fields, Ports- 
mouth House, built by Inigo Jones for the Earl of Ports- 

• Supposed to have been presented for competition at the opening of the new 
house. 



COLLEGE OF SURGEONS. 95 

mouth, has given a name to Portsmouth Street. Here the 
Black Jack Public House was long called " The Jump," 
from Jack Sheppard having escaped his pursuers by jump- 
ing from a window on its first floor. 

[Portsmouth Street leads into Portugal Street (named in 
honour of Catherine of Braganza), where Kin^s College Hos- 
pital and its surroundings have obliterated the recollections 
and annihilated the grave-stones of the Burial Ground of 
St. Clement Danes, where Nathaniel Lee, the bombastic 
dramatist (1657-1692), author of '' Sophonisba " and 
" Gloriana," was buried, having been killed in a drunken 
street brawl. Here also was the monument with an inter- 
esting epitaph to *' Honest Joe Miller," the "■ Father of 
Jokes" (1684-1738). The neighbouring Carey Street Idik^^ 
its name from the house of Sir George Carey, 1655.] 

On the south side of Lincoln's Inn Fields is the College 
of Surgeons^ built by C. Barry, 1S35. It has a fine library 
in which the cartoon for Hogarth's picture of the grant of 
the charter to the Barber-Surgeons is preserved. In the 
Council-Room is an admirable portrait of John Hunter 
{pb, 1792), the chief benefactor of the College, by Reynolds, 
There are several good busts by Chantrey. 

The Museum (right of entrance) was founded by and is 
chiefly due to the exertions of Hunter ; and " was intended 
to illustrate, as far as possible, the whole subject of life, by 
preparations of the bodies in which its phenomena are 
represented." The skeleton of the elephant Chunee, 
brought to England in 18 10, is preserved here. It is 
12 feet 4 inches in height. 

If we follow Chancery Lane into Holborn, a long series 
of gables of the time of James I. breaks the sky line 



96 



WALKS IN LONDON. 



upon the right, and beneath them is a grand old house, 
following the bend of the street with its architecture, pro- 
jecting more and more boldly in every story, broken by 
innumerable windows of quaint design and intention, and 
with an arched doorway in the centre. This is the entrance 
to Staple Inn, originally a hostelry of the merchants of 
the Wool Staple, who were removed to Westminster by 
Richard II. in 1378. It became an Inn of Chancery in 




Staple Inn, Holborn. 



' ''^■"^•OUlCKl 



the reign of Henry V., and since the time of Henry VIII. 
has been a dependency of Gray's Inn. 

"Behind the most ancient part of Holborn, where certain gabled 
houses some centuries of age still stand looking on the public way, as if 
disconsolately looking for the Old Bourne that has long since run 
dry, is a little nook composed of two irregular quadrangles, called 
Staple Inn. It is one of those nooks, the turning into which out of 
the clashing street imparts to the relieved pedestrian the sensation of 
having put cotton in his ears, and velvet soles on his boots. It is one 
of those nooks where a few smoky sparrows twitter in smoky trees, as 
though they called to each other, * let us play at country ; ' and where 



STAPLE INN. 97 

a lew feet of garden mould and a few yards of gravel enable them to do 
that refreshing violence to their tiny understandings. Moreover it is 
one of those nooks which are legal nooks ; and it contains a little hall, 
with a httle lantern in its roof : to what obstructive purposes devoted, 
and at whose expense, this history knoweth not." — Dickens — Edwin 
Drood. 

Nathaniel Hawthorne, in his first visit to London, 
says — 

** I went astray in Holborn through an arched entrance, over which 
was 'Staple Inn,' and here likewise sfeemed to be offices; but, in a 
court opening inwards from this, there was a surrounding seclusion of 
quiet dwelling-houses, with beautiful green shrubbery and grass-plots 
in the court, and a great many sun-flowers in full bloom. The windows 
were open ; it was a lovely summer afternoon, and I have a sense that 
bees were humming in the court, though this may have been suggested 
by my fancy, because the sound would have been so well suited to the 
scene. A boy was reading at one of the windows. There was not a 
quieter spot in England than this, and it was very strange to have 
drifted into it so suddenly out of the bustle and rumble of Holborn ; 
and to lose all this repose as suddenly, on passing through the arch of 
the outer court. In aU the hundreds of years since London was built, 
it has not been able to sweep its roaring tide over that little island of 
quiet." 

Beyond the miniature Hall — eminently picturesque, with 
its high timber roof and lanthorn, its stained windows 
and ancient portraits and busts of the Caesars — is a second 
court containing some admirable modern buildings on a 
raised terrace (by Whig and Pownall, 1843), of the archi- 
tecture of James I., devoted to the ofhces of the taxing 
masters in Chancery. It was to Staple Inn that Dr. John- 
son remo"ed from Gough Square, and here that — to pay the 
expenses of his mother's funeral and fulfil the few debts she 
left behind her — he wrote, what he described to Miss Porter 
as a little story-book — i.e. his " Rasselas." 

A little lower down on the same side of Holborn a 

VOL. I. M 



98 WALKS IN LONDON. 

passage under a public-house forms the humble entrance to 
Barnard's Inn, a little Inn of Chancery belonging to Gray's 
Inn. Again, there are tiny courts with a single tree growing 
in them, and flowers lining the window sills, divided by a 
tiny hall with a baby lanthorn, and a line of quaint windows 
decorated by coats of arms ana set m a timber framework. 

On the opposite side of the street is FurnivaVs Inn^ 
which was called after a Sir William Furnival, who once 
owned the land. It was an Inn of Chancery attached to 
Lincoln's Inn. Its buildings are shown by old prints to 
have been exceedingly stately, and were for the most part 
pulled down in the time of Charles I., and it was entirely 
rebuilt in 1818. A statue of Henry Peto, 1830, stands in 
the modem courtyard. Sir Thomas More was a " reader '* 
of Furnival's Inn, and Dickens was residing here when he 
began his " Pickwick Papers." 

Very near this was Scroope's Inn, described by Stow as 
one of the " faire buildings " which stood on the north 
side of " Old Borne Hill," above the bridge. It belonged 
to the Serjeants at Law, but is entirely destroyed. 

On the opposite side of the street, close to where St. 
Andrew's Church now stands, was Thavie's Inn, the most 
ancient of all the Inns of Court, which in the time of 
Edward III. was the "hospitium" of John Thavie, an 
armourer, and leased by him to the "Apprentices of the 
Law." Its buildings were destroyed by fire at the end of 
the last century. 

Gray's Inn Lane leads from the north of Holbom to 
Gray's Inn, which is the fourth Inn of Court in importance. 
It derives its name from the family of Gray de Wilton, to 
which it formerly belonged. Its vast pink-red court, with 



GRAY'S INN. 99 

the steep roofs and small-paned windows which recall 
French buildings, still contains a handsome hall of 1560, 
in which, on all festal meetings, the only toast proposed is 
" the glorious, pious, and immortal memory of Queen Eliza- 
beth," by whom the members of Gray's Inn were always 
treated with great distinction. 

Sir William Gascoigne, the just judge who committed 
Henry V. as Prince of Wales to prison for contempt of 
court ; Cromwell, Earl of Essex ; Bishop Gardiner ; Lord 
Burleigh ; Sir Nicholas Bacon, and the great Lord Bacon, 
were members of Gray's Inn, as were Archbishop Whitgift, 
Bishop Hall, and Archbishop Laud. Lord Bacon wrote 
the " Novum Organum " here, a work which, in spite of 
King James, who declared it was " like the peace of God 
which passeth all understanding," was welcomed with a 
tumult of applause by all the learned men of Europe. Dr. 
Richard Sibbes, who wrote the " Soul's Conflict " and the 
"Bruised Reed," was a Preacher in this Inn, and died 
here in one of the courts — he of whom Dr. Doddridge 
wrote — 

** Of this blest man let this just praise be given, 
Heaven was in him before he was in Heaven." 



" Gray's Inn is a great quiet domain, quadrangle beyond quadrangle, 
close beside Holborn, and a large space of greensward enclosed within 
it. It is very strange to find so much of ancient quietude right in the 
monster city's very jaws, which yet the monster shall not eat up — right 
in its very belly, indeed, which yet, in all these ages, it shall not digest 
and convert into the same substance as the rest of its busting streets. 
Nothing else in London is so like the effect of a spell, as to pass 
under one of these archways, and find yourself transported from the 
jumble, rush, tumult, uproar, as of an age of week-days condensed into 
the present hour, into what seems an eternal Sabbath." — Hawthorm, 
English Note Books. 



loo WALKS IN LONDON, 

Gray's Inn is described by Dickens in " The Uncom- 
mercial Traveller." The trees in Graves Inn Gardens 
(now closed to the public) were originally planted by Lord 
Bacon, but none remain of his time. On the west side of 
the gardens "Lord Bacon's Mount" stood till lately, 
answering to his recommendation in his " Essay on 
Gardens " — " a mount of some pretty height, leaving the 
wall of the enclosure breast high, to look abroad into the 
fields." These gardens were a fashionable promenade of 
Charles II.'s time. Pepys, writing in May, 1662, says — 

" When church was done, my wife and I walked to Graye's Inne, to 
obsen'e the fashions of the ladies, because of my wife's making some 
clothes." 

In 162 1 Howell wrote of them as "the pleasantest 
place about London, with the choicest society," and the 
Tatler and the Spectator thus speak of them. In their 
days, however, it will be remembered that Gray's Inn 
was almost in the country, for we read in the Spectator 
(No. 269) — 

" I was no sooner come into Gray's Inn Walks, but I heard my 
friend (Sir Roger de Coverley) upon the terrace, hemming twice or 
thrice to himself with great vigour, for he loves to clear his pipes in 
good air (to make use of his own phrase) and is not a little pleased 
with any one who takes notice of the strength which he still exerts in 
his morning hems." 

The characteristics of the four Inns of Court are summed 
up in the disticn — 

** Gray's Inn for walks, Lincoln's Inn for wall. 
The Inner Temple for a garden, and the Middle for a hall." 



CHAPTER III. 

BY FLEET STREET TO ST. PAUL'S. 

ON passing the site of Temple Bar we are in the City 
of London. It separates the City from the Shire, 
in allusion to which " Shire Lane " (destroyed by the New 
Law Courts)"^ was the nearest artery on its north-western 
side. We enter Fleet Street, v/hich, like Fleet Market and 
Fleet Ditch, takes its name from the once rapid and clear, 
but now fearfully polluted river Fleet, which has its source 
far away in the breezy heights of Hampstead, and flows 
through the valley where Farringdon Street now is, in which 
it once turned the mills which are still commemorated in 
Turnmill Street. Originally (1218) it was called the " River 
of Wells," being fed by the clear springs now known as 
Sadler's Wells, Bagnigge Wells, and the Clerks' Well or 
Clerkenwell, and it was navigable for a short distance. 
The river was ruined as the town extended westwards. 
Ben Jonson graphically describes in verse the horrors to 
which the increasing traffic had subjected the still open 
Fleet in his day, and Gay, Swift, and Pope also denounce 
them; but in 1765 the stream was arched over, and 
since then has sunk to the level of being recognised 



102 WALKS IN LONDON, 

as the most important sewer — the Cloaca Maxima — of 
London. 

Having always beei\ considered as the chief approach to 
the City, Fleet Street is especially connected with its 
ancient pageants. All the Coronation processions passed 
through it, on their way from the Tower to Westminster : 
but perhaps the most extraordinary sight it ever witnessed 
was in 1448, when Eleanor Cobham, Duchess of Gloucester, 
aunt of King Henry VI., was forced to walk bare-headed 
through it to St. Paul's with a lighted taper in her hand, 
in penance for having made a wax figure of the young king 
and melted it before a slow fire, praying that his life might 
melt with the wax. 

Just within the site of Temple Bar, on the right of the street, 
is Child^s Bank, which deserves notice as the oldest Banking 
house in England, still kept where Francis Child, an indus- 
trious apprentice of Charles I.'s time, married the rich 
daughter of his master, William Wheeler the goldsmith, and 
founded the great banking family. Here " at the sign of 
the Marygold " — the quaint old emblem of the expanded 
flower with the motto " Ainsi mon ame," which slill adorns 
the banking-office and still appears in the water-mark of the 
bank-cheques — Charles H. kept his great account and 
Nell Gwynne her small one, not to speak of Prince 
Rupert, Pepys, Dryden, and many others. Several other 
great Banks are in this neighbourhood. No. 19 is Gosling's 
Bank, with the sign of the three squirrels (represented in 
iron-work on the central window), founded in the reign of 
Charles II. No. 37 is Hoare's Bank, which dates from 
1680 : the sign of the Golden Bottle over the door, a 
leathern bottle (such as was used by hay-makers for their 



TAVERNS OF FLEET STREET. 103 

ale), represents the flask carried by the founder when he 
came up to London to seek his fortunes.* 

Fleet Street retains its old reputation of being occupied 
by newspaper editors and their offices, and it is almost 
devoted to them. But it also contains many taverns and 
cofiee-houses, where lawyers and newspaper writers con- 
gregate tor luncheon, and which are more frequent here than 
almost anywhere else in London, and, many of these, of 
great antiquity, are celebrated in the pages of the Gambler 
and Spectator, 

" The coffee-house was the Londoner's house, and those who wished 
to find a gentleman, commonly asked, not whether he lived in Fleet 
Street or Chancery Lane, but whether he frequented * the Grecian * 
or * the Rainbow.' " — Macaulay. 

It was next door to Child's Bank that the famous '' Devil 
Tavern " stood,! with the sign of St. Martin and the Devil, 
where the Apollo Club had its meetings, guided by poetical 
rules of Ben Jonson, which began — 

Let none but guests or clubbers hither come ; 
Let dunces, fools, and sordid men keep nome ; 
Let learned, civil, merry men b' invited, 
And modest too ; nor be clioice J quor slighted ; 
Let nothing in the treat offend : le guest : 
More for delight than cost prepare the feast." 

We hear of Swift dining "at the Devil Tavern with Dr. 
Garth and Addison," when " Garth treated,"J and of Dr 
Johnson presiding here at a supper-party in honour of the 
publication of Mrs. Lennox's first book. 

• Sir R. Colt Hoare considers it a sig^n adopted by James Hoar of Cheap- 
side '' from his father Ralph having been a citizen and cooper of the Citj of 
London." 

t Taken down in 1788. 

% Journal to Stella. 



I04 WALKS IN LONDON, 

Close beside "The Devil," Bernard Lintot, the great 
bookseller of the last century, kept the stall on which Gay 
was so anxious that his works should appear. 

" Oh, Lintot, let my labours obvious lie 
B. anged on thy stall lor every envious eye ; 
So shall the poor these precepts gratis know. 
And to my verse theii luture saleties owe." 

Trivia. Book ii. 

In Shire Lane was the " Kit-Kat Club " (which first met 
in Westminster at the house of a pastry-cook called Chris- 
topher Cat), where the youth of Queen Anne's reign were 
wont to — 

" Sleep away the days and drink away the nights." 

Thither it was that Steele and Addison brought Hoadly, 
Bishop of Bangor, on the anniversary of William III., to 
drink to his "immortal memory," and thence, as Steele 
dropped drunk under the table, the scandalised bishop stole 
away home to bed, but was propitiated in the morning by 
the lines — 

♦' Virtue with so much ease on Bangor sits, 

All faults he pardons, though he none commits.'^ 

The members of this club all had their portraits painted by 
Sir Godfrey Kneller for Jacob Tonson, their secretary, and 
the half-size then chosen by the artist has always since 
caused the term " Kit Kat" to be apphed to that form of 
portrait. The pictures painted here by Kneller are now at 
Bayfordbury in Hertfordshire. 

Hard by, also in Shire Lane, was the tavern — " the 
Bible Tavern," which was appropriately chosen by Jack 
Sheppard for many of his orgies, for it was possessed of a 



THE COCK TAVERN. 



105 



trapdoor, through which, in case of pursuit, he could drop 
unobserved into a subterranean passage communicating 
with Bell Yard, an alley which is associated with Pope, who 
used to come thither to visit his friend Fortescue, afterwards 
Master of the Rolls. 

Opposite the first gate of the Temple, No. 201 in Fleet 
Street, marked by its golden bird over the door, is the Cock 




Drayton's House, Fleet Street. 



Tavern, one of the few ancient taverns remaining unaltered 
internally from the time of James I., with its long low room, 
subdivided by settees, and its carved oak chimney-piece of 
that period. It was hither that Pepys, to his wife's great 
aggravation, would come gallivanting with pretty Mrs. 
ICnipp, and where they " drank, ate a lobster, and sang, 
and mighty merry till almost midnight." Tennyson begins 



Io6 WALKS IN LONDON. 

" Will Waterproofs Lyrical Monologue, maae at The Cock,^ 

with the lines — 

" O plump head waiter at The Cock, 
To which I most resort, 
How goes the time ? *Tis five o'clock. 
Go ietch a pint of port." 

As we pass the angle of Chancery Lane we must recollect 
that the gentle Izaak Walton lived as a hosier and shirt- 
maker in the corner house from 1627 to 1647, and that, just 
beyond, in the bow-windowed house which is still standing 
(No. 184, 185), lived the poet Drayton. In a house close 
by, now demolished, Abraham Cowley was born in 161 8, 
being the son of a grocer, and studied, as a child, the large 
copy of Spenser's " Faery Queen " which lay on his mother's 
window-sill, till he became, as he himself narrates — " irre- 
coverably a poet." 

The chief feature of Fleet Street as seen on entering it, 
is the Church of St. Dunsian in the West, built by Shaw, 
1 83 1, on the site of the church in which the great Lord 
Strafford was baptized. This old church was famous for its 
clock, in which two giants struck the hour : they are com- 
memorated by Cowper in his Table-talk : 

" When Labour and when Dullness, club in hand, 
Like the two figures of S. Dunstan's stand, 
Beating alternately, in measured time. 
The clock-work tmtinnabulum of rhyme." 

It was here that Baxter was preaching when there arose an 
out-cry that the building was falling. He was silent for a 
moment, and then said solemnly, " We are in God's service, 
to prepare ourselves that we may be fearless at the great 
noise of the dissolving world, when the heavens shall 



QUEEN ELIZABETH'S STATUE. \of 

pass away, and the elements melt with fervent heat."* In 
the middle of the last century the church became well 
known from the lectures of William Romaine, author of 
** The Life, the Walk, and the Triumph of Faith." When 
he prea^'hed, the crowds were so great as entirely to 
block up the street. The opposition of the rector, who 
placed all possible hindrances in his way, and prevented his 
having more than a single candle, which he held in his 
hand during his sermon, only secured for him the firmer 
support of the people. 

Over the side entrance towards the street is a Statue of 
Queen Elizabeth holding the orb and sceptre, which is of 
much interest as having survived the Great Fire of London, 
when the building in which it stood was consumed, and 
as one of the few existing relics of the old city gates, for it 
formerly adorned the west front of Ludgate, one of the four 
ancient entrances to the city. 

In Falcon Court, opposite St. Dunstan's, was the office of 
Wynkyn de Worde, the famous printer, whose sign was the 
Falcon. 

At the corner of Fetter Lane (named from the professed 
beggars, called Faitours or Fewters), which opens now upon 
the left, Lords Eldon and Stowell were upset in their sedan 
chair in a street row.f Here is a Moravian Chapel (No. 32) 
replete with memories of Baxter, Wesley, Whitfield, and in 
later times of Count Zinzendorf. Dryden and Otway lived 
opposite to each other in this street, and used to quarrel 
in verse. In 1767 Fetter Lane obtained notoriety as the 
abode of Elizabeth Brownrigg, the prentice-cide, who lived 

• Bates's " Funeral Sermon for Baxter." 
t Horace Twiss's Life of Eldon, i. 49. 



io8 WAI^KS IN LONDON. 

in the first house on the right of the entrance of Flower de 
Luce (Fleur de Lis) Court. She is commemorated in the 
inscription for her cell in Newgate in the poetry of " The 
An ti- Jacobin." 

** For one long term, or e'er her trial came, 

Here Brownrigg linger'd. Otren nave tnese cells 
Ecnoed hei blasphemies, as wilh sHrill voice 
She screamed <oi tresh Geneva. Not to ner 
Did the blithe heias of Totnili, or ttiy street, 
St. Giles, its iaii varieties expand ; 
Till at the last, in slow-drawn cart, she went 
To execution. Dost thou asK hei crime .'' 
She whipp'd two temaJe 'pi entices to death, 
And hid them in the coaJ-hoie. i:'oi hci mind 
Shaped strictest plans ot discipline.'' 

On the left of Fetter Lane is the magnificent new Fecord 
Office, erected 1851-66 from designs of Sir James Fenjte- 
ihorne to contain the National Records, hitherto crowded 
into St. John's Chapel in the White Tower, the Chapter 
House of Westminster and four other offices. It is a stately- 
Gothic building, but is perhaps most effective when seen from 
the north-east angle. The greatest of the many treasures 
preserved here is the Domesday Book, compiled in the time 
of the Conqueror and written in two volumes on vellum. 

On the left of Fleet Street, beyond Fetter Lane, is the 
opening of Crane Court (formerly Two-Crane Court), rebuilt 
immediately after the Fire and retaining many houses 
of Charles II. 's time. In the first house on the right 
(rebuilt) Dryden Leach, the printer, was arrested at mid- 
night on suspicion of having printed Wilkes's North Briton, 
No. 45. The site at the end of the court was purchased 
by the Royal Society from Dr. Nicholas Barebone, son 
of the " Praise God Barebone," who gave his name to a 



OLD HOUSE OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY, 109 

parliament of which he was a conspicuous member. It is 
said that the son was christened " If Jesus Christ had not 
died for thee thou hadst been damned Barebone," but he 
was generally known by the name of " damned Dr. Bare- 
bone." The situation of the house was recommended by 
Sir Isaac Newton, then President, as "in the middle of the 
town, and out of noise." The Society removed hither 
in lyiofrom Gresham College, to accommodate the Mercers' 
Company, and here they remained in the house built for 
them by Sir Christopher Wren for seventy-two years, till in 
1782 they moved to Somerset House. 

" The promotion of inoculation received its attention from 1714 to 
1722 ; electrical experiments were the chief features of its efforts of 
1745 ; ventilation and the suppression of fevers absorbed the efforts of 
1750. In 1757 thei-mometers and the laws of light were the topics of 
investigation ; astronomy came to the fore in the year following, and 
the Greenwich Observatory followed ; and the succeeding years were 
directly and indirectly productive of an amount of real substantial good, 
by which the whole world has benefited, and which should be amply 
sufficient to make the story of this old house a deeply interesting 
one, and the house itself a relic in every way worthy of the most care- 
ful preservation." — The Builder, Jan. 8, 1876. 

The house in Crane Court was sold by the Royal Society 
to The Scottish Corporation, an excellent national charity, 
founded soon after the accession of James I., for relief of 
persons of Scottish parentage who have fallen into distress, 
and which now gives constant assistance to as many as 
six hundred indigent persons of Scottish birth within ten 
miles of London. 

"It has passed by the able-bodied impostors, but it hps been of in- 
calculable service to many who have hoped to find London streets 
paved with gold and been disappointed ; to many who have entered 
on the great battle of life and broken down in the conflict. It relieves 
aged soldiers, those who from various causes have failed to lay up a 



no WALKS IN LONDON. 

sufficient provision for old age ; it lends a helping hand to those who 
are willing to help themselves." — Speech of Lord Rosehery as Presi- 
dent, 211th Anniversary. 

The Hall of the Royal Society, where Sir Isaac Newton 
sat as President, exists in its ancient condition, with a 




House of the Royal Society, Crane Court. 



richly stuccoed ceiling of 1665. It is hung with pictures, 

including — 

Zucchero ? Mary, Queen of Scots—" piissima Regina Franciae 
Dotaria," 1578. 

Sir Godfrey Kneller. The First Duke of Bedford. 
Sir G. Kneller. The Duke of Queensberry. 
Tweedie. The Third Duke of Montrose. 
Wilkie. William IV. 



THE HOMES OF DR. JOHNSON, in 

The adjoining room, which the Royal Society employed for 
their larger meetings, and where the ladies' gallery with its 
narrow oak staircase still remains, is now used as the 
chapel of the Scottish Corporation. 

Fleet Street is peculiarly associated with Dr. Johnson, 
who admired it beyond measure. Walking one day with 
Boswell on the beautiful heights of Greenwich Park, he 
asked "Is not this very fine?" — " Yes, sir, but not so fine as 
Fleet Street." " You are quite right, sir," replied the great 
critic. Thus, passing over the recollections of a tavern 
called *' Hercules' Pillars," where Pepys enjoyed many a 
supper-party, and the " Mitre Tavern," whither Boswell 
came so often to meet Johnson, let us, if we care for them, 
visit in the swarthy courts and alleys on the left, a number 
of the difierent scenes in which Johnson's life was passed. 

Here we may fancy him as Miss Burney describes him — 
" tall, stout, grand and authoritative, but stooping horribly, 
his back quite round, his mouth continually opening and 
shutting, as if he were chewing something ; with a singular 
method of twirling and twisting his hands ; his vast body 
in constant agitation, see-sawing backwards and forwards ; 
his feet never a moment quiet, and his whole great person 
looking often as if it were going to roll itself, quite volun- 
tarily, from its chair to the floor." There is no figure out 
of the past with which we are able to be as familiar as we 
are with that of Samuel Johnson : his very dress is portrayed 
for us by Peter Pindar : — 

"Methinks I view his full, plain suit of brown, 
The large grey bushy wig, that graced his crown ; 
Black worsted stockings, little silver buckles, 
And shirt, that had no ruffles for his knuckles. 



UH WALKS IN LONDON. 

1 mark the brown great-coat of cloth he wore, 
That two huge Patagonian pockets bore, 
"Which Patagonians (wondrous to unfold !) 
Would fairly both his Dictionaries hold." 

The dismal court called Gough Square still exists, where 
he resided (at No. 17) from 1748 to 1758, in which his wife 
died, and where he wrote the greatest part of his Dictionary 
and began the Rambler and the Idler; in the narrow 
blackened Johnsoji's Court (not named from him), he 
dwelt (at No. 7) from 1765 to 1776; after which he lived 
at No. 8 in Bolt Court* till in December 1784, he lay upon 
his death-bed, surrounded by the faithful friends of his life. 
With Johnson, in Bolt Court, dwelt a curious collection of 
disappointed, cross, and aged persons, chiefly old ladies, 
who depended upon the bounty of the man whose bearish 
exterior ever covered a warm heart. It was not a very 
harmonious household. " Williams," he wrote to Mr. and 
Mrs. Thrale, speaking of one of these ladies, " Williams 
hates everybody ; Levett hates Desmoulins, and does not 
love Williams ; Desmoulins hates them both, and Poll 
Carmichael loves none of them." " He is now become 
miserable, and that ensures the protection of Johnson," 
was Goldsmith's answer when some one expressed his sur- 
prise at one of the objects selected for the friendship of the 
lexicographer. 

While Johnson was living in this neighbourhood. Gold- 
smith was residing at No. 6, Wine Office Court , and the 
favourite seat of the friends, in the window of the Cheshire 
Cheese Tavern, is still pointed out. It was in this 
court that Goldsmith received Johnson for the first 

- The Bolt Court house of Dr. Johnson was burnt in 1M9 



GUNPOWDER ALLEY, II j 

time at supper, who came — his clothes new and his wig 
nicely powdered, wishing, as he explained to Percy (of the 
" Reliques "), who inquired the cause of such unusual neat- 
ness, to show a better example to Goldsmith whom he had 
heard of as justifying his disregard of cleanliness and 
decency by quoting his practice. It was from hence, while 
Goldsmith's landlady was pressing him within doors and the 
bailiff without, that Dr. Johnson took the manuscript of a 
novel he had written to James Newberry, sold it for sixty 
pounds, and returned with the money to set him free. 
The manuscript lay neglected for two years, and was then 
published without a notion of its future popularity. It was 
"The Vicar of Wakefield." 

An offshoot of Shoe Lane, a narrow entry on the left, 
called " Gunpowder Alley," was connected with the sad 
fate of another poet, Richard Lovelace the Cavalier, who 
died here of starvation.* Anthony Wood describes him 
when he was presented at the Court of Charles I. at 
Oxford, as " the most beautiful and amiable youth that eye 
ever beheld. A person to(? of innate modesty, virtue, and 
courtly deportment, which made him then, but specially 
after, when he retired to the great city, much admired and 
adored by the female sex." From 1648 to the King's 
death, he was imprisoned in the Gatehouse at Westminster 
for his devotion to Charles I., and when he was released, 
he went to serve in the French army, writing to his 
betrothed, Lucy Sacheverell, the lines, ending — 

** I could not love thee, dear, so much. 
Loved I not honour more.'' 

• Though Aubrey says, " in a cellar at Long Acre,** 
VOL. I. A 



I f4 WALKS IN LONDON. 

But he was left for dead upon the field of Dunkirk, and 
when he came back his Lucy was married. He never 
looked up again : all went wrong, he was imprisoned, 
ruined, and died here in miserable destitution. 

Bangor House, the town residence of the Bishops of 
Bangor, stood in Shoe Lane till 1828, and, hard by, the 
entry of PoppirCs Court in Fleet Street still marks the site 
of Poppingaye, the town palace of the abbots of Ciren- 
cester. No. 109 Fleet Street, near this, is an admirable 
specimen of a modern house in the olden style. 

One of the streets which open upon the right of Fleet 
Street still bears the name of Whitefriars, which it derives 
from the convent of the Brotherhood of the Virgin of Mount 
Carmel, founded by Sir Richard Grey in 1241.* The 
establishment of one of the earliest Theatres in London 
in the monastic hall of Whitefriars was probably due to the 
fact of its being a sanctuary beyond the jurisdiction of the 
Mayor and Corporation, who then and ever since have 
opposed theatrical performances within the City. The first 
playhouse was at Blackfriars, find Whitefriars followed in 
1576. After the Dissolution, this district retained the 
privilege of sanctuary, and thus it became the refuge for 
troops of bad characters of every description. It obtained 
the name of Alsada, a name which is first found in Shad- 
well's Play, "The Squire of Alsatia," and to which Sir 
Walter Scott has imparted especial interest through " The 

• It contained the tombs of Sir Robert Knolles, the builder of Rochester 
Bridge, celebrated in the French wars (1407) ; of Robert Mascall, Bishop of 
It) ereford, who built the choir and steeple (1416); of William Montacute, Earl of 
Salisbury and King of Man, killed in a tournament at Windsor (1343) ; and of 
Stephen Patrington, Confessor of Henry IV. and Bishop of St. David's and 
Chichester (1417). King Henry VIII. gave the chapter-house of White&iars to 
his physician, Dr. Butts, the enemy of Cranmer. 



ALSATIA, ri5 

Fortunes of Nigel." In the reign of James I., almost as 
much sensation was created here by a singular crime 
in high life, as in Paris by the murder of the Duchesse 
de Praslin in our own time. Young Lord Sanquhar 
had his eye put out while taking lessons in fencing 
from John Turner, the famous fencing-master of the day. 
Being afterwards in France, the young King Henry IV., 
after inquiring kindly about his accident, said condoUngly 
but jokingly, and " does the man who did it still live ? " 
From that time it became a monomania with Lord 
Sanquhar to compass the death of the unfortunate 
Turner, though two years elapsed before he was able 
to accomplish it — two years in which he dogged his un- 
conscious victim like a shadow, and eventually had him 
shot by two hired assassins at a tavern which he frequented 
in Whitefriars. The deputy murderers were arrested, and 
then Lord Sanquhar surrendered to the mercy of the Arch- 
bishop of Canterbury, but he was sentenced to death, and 
was hung before the entrance of Westminster Hall. 

Bordering on Alsatia io Salisbury Court, marking the site 
of the town-house of the Bishops of Salisbury. Here we 
have again literary reminiscences, Richardson having 
written and printed his "Pamela" there, and Goldsmith 
having sat there as his press corrector. 

In 1629 t^"^6 "Salisbury Court Theatre" was erected, which 
was destroyed in 1649. It was rebuilt in 1660, in Dorset 
Gardens near the river, and attained great celebrity under 
the name of "The Duke's Theatre." Being burnt in the 
Fire, it was rebuilt by Wren in 167 1, and decorated by 
Gibbons. Dryden describes it as "like Nero's palace, 
shining all with gold." It faced the river and had a land- 



ii6 WALKS IN LONDON. 

ing-place for those who came by water, and a quaint front 
resting on open arches. Pepys was a great admirer of the 
performances at The Duke's Theatre. Here he saw *' The 
Bondsman " — " an excellent play and well done," and here 
he reports that while he was watching Sir W. Davenant's 
opera of the " Siege of Rhodes " " by the breaking of a 
board over our heads, we had a great deal of dust fall in 
the ladies' necks and the men's haire, which made good 
sport." The theatre declined in 1682, but was still in 
existence in 1720. The site is now occupied by the City 
Gas Works. 

Through Alsatia, the abode of the rogues, we descend 
appropriately upon the site of their famous prison of Bride- 
we.ll, which was demolished in 1863-4. It was founded, 
like Christ's Hospital, by King Edward VI., under the 
first flush of emotion caused by a sermon on Christian 
charity which he had heard from Bishop Ridley, who 
urged that there was " a wide empty house of the King's 
Majesty, called Bridewell, that would wonderfully well serve 
to lodge Christ in," and it was used as a refuge for deserted 
children, long known as "Bridewell Boys." Gradually, 
from a Reformatory, it became a prison, and the horrors of 
the New Bridewell Prison are described by Ward in '' The 
London Spy." The prisoners, both men and women, used 
to be flogged on the naked back, and the stripes only 
ceased when the president, who sat with a hammer in his 
hand, let it fall upon the block before him. " Oh, good 
Sir Robert, knock ; pray. Sir Robert, knock ! ' became after- 
wards often a cry of reproach against those who had been 
imprisoned in Bridewell. Here died Mrs. Creswell, a 
famous criminal of Charles II.'s reign, who bequeathed 



BRIDEWELL, 117 

£^2Q to a divine 'of the period upon condition that he 
should say nothing but what was good of her. It was a 
difficult task, but the clergyman was equal to the occasion. 
He wound up a commonplace discourse upon mortality by 
saying — " I am desired by the will of the deceased to men- 
tion her, and to say nothing but what is well of her. All 
that I shall say therefore is this — that she was born well, 
lived well, and died well ; for she was born a Creswell, 
she lived in Clerkenwell, and she died in Bridewell."* 

The prison was, as we have said, founded upon the old 
palace of Bridewell, which, in its turn, had occupied the site 
of the tower of Montfiquet, built by a Norman ioUower of 
the Conqueror. The palace embraced courts, cloisters, and 
gardens, and close against the walls ran the Fleet. It was 
to this Bridewell Palace that Henry VIII., after he had 
been capdvated by Anne Boleyn, summoned the Members 
of Council, the Lords of the Court, and the Mayor and 
Aldermen, and communicated to them that scruples had 
"long tormented his mind with regard to his marriage with 
Katherine of Arragon." Shakspeare makes the whole 
third act of his Henry VIII. pass in the palace at Bride- 
well, which is historically correct. It was there that the 
unhappy Katherine received Wolsey and Campeggio, 
" having a skein of red silke about her neck, being at work 
with her maidens." f 

The name of B-idewell comes from St. Bride's or St. 
Bridget's Well, a holy spring with supposed miraculous 

• In the court-room of the prison hung a huge picture of Edward VI. granting 
a charter for the endowment of Bridewell to the mayor. It was attributed to 
Holbein, but could not be his, for the simple reason that it represented an event 
which occurred ten years after his death, 

t Cavendish. 



ii8 WALKS IN LONDON, 

powers like that of St. Clement, which we have already 
noticed in the Strand. The well here, of which Milton 
certainly drank, has shared the fate of all the other famous 
wells of London, and has become a pump. St. Brides 
Church was rebuilt by Wren after the Fire, and its steeple 
is one of those on which he bestowed particular pains, 
though it is often not unjustly compared to the slides of a 
telescope drawn out. It stands effectively at the end of a 
little entry at the foot of Fleet Street, but it should be 
remembered that, owing to its having been twice struck 
by lightning, it is somewhat shorn of the lofty proportions 
which were originally given to it by the great architect 
(226 ft. instead of 234). Its bells, put up in 17 10, are 
dear to the Londoner's soul. Wynkin de Worde, the famous 
printer, who rose under the patronage of the mother of 
Henry VII., and published no less than 400 works, was 
buried in the old church, which also contained the graves 
of the poets Sackville (1608) and Lovelace (1658), and of 
Sir Richard Baker (1645), who died in the Fleet prison, 
author of the very untrustworthy " Chronicle of the Kings 
of England," beloved by Sir Roger de Coverley. In the 
existing building are monuments to Samuel Richardson 
(17 61), who is buried here with his wife and family, and to 
John Nichols, the historian of Leicestershire. John Card- 
maker, who suffered for his faith in Smithfield, May 30, 
1553-4, was vicar of this church. 

Here, in the churchyard of St. Bride, still a quiet and 
retired spot, John Milton canxe to lodge in 1643 ^^ ^^^ 
house of one Russell a tailor ; here he wrote his treatises 
" Of Reformation," " Of Practical Episcopacy," and others j 
and here he instructed, and very often whipped, his sister's 



ST. BRIDE'S CHURCHYARD. ir9 

two boys. " Here," says Aubrey, " his first wife, Mrs. 
Mary Powell, a royalist, having been brought up and 
lived where there was a great deal of company, merriment, 
and dancing, when she came to live with her husband at 
Mr. Russell's, found it very solitary ; no company came to 
her, and oftentimes she heard his nephews beaten and cry." 
Her parents also, reports Milton's nephew Phillips, " began 
to repent them of having matched the eldest daughter of 
the family to a person so contrary to them in opinion, and 
thought that it would be a blot on their escutcheon." At 
length the poor young wife found married life " so irksome 
to her, that she went away to her parents at Forest Hill." 
This visit was indefinitely prolonged, and the poet's letters 
remained unanswered. He sent a messenger to bring her 
back, who was scornfully dismissed ; but after a time Mrs. 
Milton's jealousy was excited by the belief that the poet 
was paying attentions to the beautiful Miss Davis, and she 
entreated for a reconciliation of her own accord, an event 
which had a happy result for the Powell family, as they 
were able to take refuge in the house of their republican 
son-in-law, when the royalist cause became desperate. The 
poet's royalist wife Mary died in 1653, leaving her husband, 
who was then becoming blind, with three Httle daughters, 
of whom the eldest was only six years old. 

It was in defence of this house in St. Bride's Church- 
yard that, on the advance of Prince Rupert's troops after 
the Battle of Edgehill, Milton wrote his sonnet : 

" Captain, or colonel, or knight in arms, 

Wliose chance on these defenceless doors may seize, 

If deed of honour did thee ever please, 

Guard them, and him within protect from harms. 



T20 WALKS IN LONDON. 

He can requite thee, for he knows the charms 
That call fame on such gentle acts as these, 
And he can spread thy name o'er lands and seas, 
Wliatever clime the sun's bright circle warms. 

Lift not thy spear against the Muse's bower : 
The great Emathian conqueror bid spare 
The house of Pindarus, when temple and tower 

Went to the ground ; and the repeated air 
Of sad Electra's poet had the power 
To save th' Athenian walls from ruin bare." 

At the entrance of the passage down which the tower o\ 
St. Bride's is seen from Fleet Street, the well-known figure 
of " Punch " will always attract attention to the office 
whence so much fun has emanated since the first establish- 
ment of the Paper in 1841, 

Bridewell was not the only prison which was waiting on 
the outskirts of Alsatia for its frequenters. The great prison 
of the Fleet was only demolished in 1844, having been first 
used for those who were condemned by the Star Chamber. 
It is an evidence of the size of the river Fleet in old days, 
difficult as it is to believe possible now. that the prisoners 
used to be brought from Westminster by water, and landed 
at a gate upon the Fleet like the Traitor's Gate upon the 
Thames at the Tower. It was here that poor old Bishop 
Hooper was imprisoned (1555) before he was sent to be 
burnt at Gloucester, his bed being " a little pad of straw, 
with a rotten covering," and here, to use his own words, 
he "moaned, called, and cried for help" in his desperate 
sickness, but the Warden charged that none of his men 
should help him, saying, " Let him alone, it were a good 
riddance of him." Here Prynne was imprisoned for a 
denunciation of actresses, which was supposed to reflect 
upon Queen Henrietta Maria, who had lately been in- 



THE FLEET. 121 

dulging in private theatricals at Somerset House, was con- 
demned to pay a fine of ^,£'10,000, to be burned in the 
forehead, slit in the nose, and to have his ears cut oft". 
Hence, six years later, for reprinting one of Prynne's books, 
"free-born John Lilburne " was whipped to Westminster, 
and then brought back to be imprisoned, till he was 
triumphantly released by the Long Parliament. The 
cruelties which were discovered to have been practised in 
the Fleet led, in 1726, to the trial of its gaoler, Bambidge, 
for murder, when horrors were disclosed which appalled 
all who heard of them. Bambidge was found to have fre- 
quently beguiled unwary and innocent persons to the prison 
gate-house, and then seized and manacled them without 
any authority whatever, and kept them there until he had 
extorted a ransom. In several cases the prisoners were 
tortured, in others they were left for so many days without 
food that they died from inanition, in others Bambidge 
having ordered his men to stab them with their bayonets, 
they perished from festered wounds. Hogarth first rose 
to celebrity by his picture of the Fleet Prison Committee. 
Horace VValpole describes it : 



"The scene is the committee. On the table are the instruments of 
torture. A prisoner in rags, half-starved, appears before them. The 
poor man has a good countenance, that adds to the interest. On the 
other hand is the inhuman gaoler. It is the very figure that Salvator 
Rosa would have drawn for lago in the moment of detection. Vil- 
lainy, fear, and conscience are mixed in yellow and livid on his 
countenance. His lips are contracted by tremor, his face advances as 
eager to lie, his legs step back as thinking to make his escape. One 
hand is thrust precipitately into his bosom, the fingers of the other 
are catching uncertainly at his button-holes. If this was a portrait, 
it is the most striking that ever was drawn ; if it was not, it is still 
finer." 



133 WALKS m LONDON, 

The formation of the Fleet Committee found a more lasting 
eulogium. in the lines in Thomson's " Winter." 

" And here can I forget the generous band 
Who, touch'd with human woe, redressive sesirch'd 
Into the horrors of the gloomy jail, 
Unpitied and unheard, where Misery moans, 
Where Sickness pines, where Thirst and Hunger bum, 
And poor Misfortune feels the lash of Vice." 

The precincts of the prison were long celebrated for the 
notorious " Fleet Marriages," which were performed, with- 
out license or publication of banns, by a set of vicious 
clergymen confined in the prison for debt, and therefore 
free from fear of the fine of ;£ioo usually inflicted on 
clergymen convicted of solemnising clandestine marriages. 
No less than 217 marriages are shown by the Fleet registers 
to have been sometimes celebrated there in one day ! The 
"marrying houses," as they were called, were generally 
kept by the turnkeys of the prison, and the different 
degraded clergymen of the Fleet maintained touts in the 
street to beguile any arriving lovers to their especial 
patrons. Pennant, walking past the Fleet in his youth, was 
often tempted with the question, " Sir, will you be pleased 
to walk in and be married ? " In the curious poem called 
*' The Humours of the Fleet " we read — 

«* Scarce had the coach discharged its trusty fare, 
But gaping crowds surround th' amorous pair, 
The busy plyers make a mighty stir, 
And whispering cry, ' D'ye want the parson, sir ? 
Pray step this way — ^just to the * Pen in Hand,* 
The doctor's ready there at your command.* 
*This way,' another cries. ' Sir, I declare, 
The true and ancient register is here.' 
The alarmed parsons quickly hear the din, 
And haste with soothing words to invite them in." 



LUB GATE, 123 

Before leaving the Fleet we may recollect that Dickens 
paints Mr. Pickwick as having been imprisoned there for 
several months, and that he has given a vivid picture of the 
latter days of the old debtors* prison. 

With the Fleet was swept away *' the emporium of petty 
larceny " called Field Lane, especially connected with the 
iniquities of Jonathan Wild and his companions, who are 
said to have disposed of many of their murdered victims by 
letting them down from a back-window into the silent waters 
of the Fleet. The surrounding streets bore the name of 
"Jack Ketch's Warren," from the number of persons hung 
at Tyburn and Newgate whose houses were in its courts 
and alleys. 

Crossing Farringdon Street,* where the now invisible 
Fleet still pursues its stealthy course beneath the roadway, 
and where it was once crossed by Fleet Bridge, we reach, at 
the foot of Ludgate Hill, the site of one of the four great 
ancient gates of the city — the Lud Gate — destroyed Novem- 
ber, 1760.1 " Here eight men well armed and strong, watched 
the city gate by night." The name of the gate is described 
as having been derived from the legendary king Lud, who 
is said to have built it sixty-six years before the birth of 
Christ. Speed, the historian, relates " that King Cadwallo 
being buried in St. Martin's Church, near Ludgate, his 
image, great and terdble, triumphantly riding on horseback, 
artificially cast in brass, was placed upon the western gate 
of the city, to the fear and terror of the Saxons." It was 



• Faringdon Wafrd is named from William Faringdon, a goldsmith, sheriff 
in Z281. 

+ It was sold July 30, 1760, with two other gates, to Hlagden, a carpenter ot 
Coleman Street. Ludgate fetched ;^i48 ; Aldgate,;^i77 los. ; and Cripplegate, j^Qi. 

X Riley, p. 92, 



134 WALKS IN LONDON. 

upon the western face of this gate that the statue of Queen 
Ehzabeth stood, which we may still see over the door of 
St. Dunstan's in the West. On the eastern front were 
statues of King Lud and his sons, Androgeus and Theo- 
mantius, which have now disappeared. Adjoining the gate 
wfis a prison, and the poor prisoners used to beg piteously 
from those who passed beneath it. Jane Shore was im- 
mured here by Richard III. The gate itself was restored 
by the widow of one of these prisoners, Stephen Forster. 
She had admired his good looks through the grating, 
obtained his release, and married him, and he lived to be 
Lord Mayor of London in the time of Henry VI.* In the 
chapel of the gatehouse was inscribed — 

" Devout soules that passe this way, 
For Stephen Forster, late Maior, heartily pray ; 
And Dame Agnes, his spouse, to God consecrate, 
That of pitie this house made for Londoners in Ludgate, 
So that for lodging and water prisoners here nought pay. 
As their keepers shall all answer at dreadful domesday." 

Instead of the old gateway, the Ludgate Hill Railway 
Viaduct now crosses the street, entirely spoiling the finest 
view of St. Paul's. 

As we ascend Ludgate Hill, on the left is BelU Sauvagt 
Yard, which is generally supposed still, as it was by 
Addison, to derive its odd name from the popular story 
of the patient Griselda, but which is really named from 
Savage, its first innkeeper, and his hostelry " the Bell." 
A curious woodcut of 1595 shows the courtyard of the 
Belle Sauvage surrounded with wooden balconies, filled 
with spectators to witness the wonderful tricks of the 

• The story of Stephen Forster is commemorated in Rowley's " Widow Neret 
Vext, or the Widow of Comhill." 



LUDGATE HILL. 125 

horse Marocco, which was publicly exhibited in Shak- 
speare's lime by a Scotchman named Banks. This Inn 
was altogether closed during the Great Plague, when its 
host issued advertisements that " all persons who had 
any accompts with the master, or farthings belonging to the 
said house," might exchange them for the usual currency : 
for the Belle Sauvage, like many other taverns, then had its 
own "tokens." It was in the Belle Sauvage Yard that 
Gibbons, introduced to the notice of Charles II. by Evelyn, 
first became known as a sculptor, by having carved " a pot 
of flowers, which shook surprisingly with the motion of the 
coaches which passed by." * 

It is recorded that Sir Thomas Wyatt, the rebel of 
Mary's reign, being refused admittance to Ludgate, rested 
him awhile on a bench opposite the Belle Sauvage, before 
he turned back towards Temple Bar, where he was taken 
prisoner. 

Ludgate Hill is very picturesque, and leads worthily up 
to St. Paul's. On its north side were the offices of Rundell 
and Bridge, Jewellers to the Crown, with the sign of two 
golden salmon : their strong cellars remain under the 
warehouse of Messrs. Daldy and Isbister. St, Martinis 
Church, with a good and simple tower by Wren, combines 
admirably with the first view of the cathedral, and greatly 
adds to its effect, as was doubtless intended by the 
architect. 

'* Lo, like a bishop upon dainties fed, 
St. Paul's lifts up his sacerdotal head ; 
WTiile his lean curates, slim and lank to view. 
Around him point their steeples to the blue." 

• Walpole. 



126 



WALKS IN LONDON. 



Cadwallo, king of the Britons, who died in 677, is said to 
have been buried in St. Martin's Church, of which Robert 
of Gloucester declares him to be the founder — 

** A church of St. Martin, livying he let rere, 
In whych yat men shold Goddys seruyse do, 
And sin for his soule and al Christene also." 



To this church belongs the well-known epitaph 



Earth goes to 
Earth treads on 
Earth as to 
Earth shall to 

Earth upon 
Earth goes to 
Earth though on 
Earth shall from 



Earth 



Earth 



As mold to mold, 
GHttering in gold, 
Return here should, 
Goe ere he would. 

Consider may, 
Naked away. 
Be stout and gay. 
Passe poor away. 



In St. Martin's Court, on the other side of the street, 
jammed in between crowded shops and swallov/ed up in the 
present, a thick black grimy fragment of the City Wall 
may be discovered, one of the only four known fragments 
remaining. 

In Stationers' Hall Court, a quiet courtyard on the left, 
is the Hall of the Stationers' Company^ incorporated 1557. 
It was rebuilt after the Great Fire and refronted in 1800. 
A musical festival used annually to be held in the Hall on 
St. Cecilia's Day, and Dryden's ode, " Alexander's Feast, 
or the Power of Music," was first performed here. In 
the Committee Room are a number of portraits, including 
those of Richard Steele, of Vincent Wing the astronomer 
(1669), and of Samuel Richardson (Master of the Company 
in 1754) and his wife, by High?nore. In the Court Room is 



STATIONERS' HALL, 127 

Bmjamin Wesfs picture of ** Alfred dividing his loaf with 
the Pilgrim," well known from engravings. 

Formerly the Stationers' Company enjoyed the monopoly 
of printing all books — and long after that privilege was 
withdrawn, it maintained the sole right of printing almanacks, 
which was only contended with success in 177 1. The 
Company, however, continue to derive a great revenue from 
their almanacks, which they issue on or about the 22nd of 
November. The copyright of books is still secured by 
their being " entered at Stationers' Hall." 

The grimy little garden at the back of the Hall has its 
associations, for, at the time of the Star Chamber, the 
Archbishop of Canterbury, one of its most active members, 
used frequently to send warrants to the Master and 
Wardens of the Stationers' Company, requiring them on 
pain of the penalties of the Church and forfeiture of all 
their temporal rights, to search every house in which there 
was a press for seditious publications, which they were to 
seize, and burn in the Hall garden. 



CHAPTER IV. 
ST. PAUL'S AND ITS SURROUNDINGS. 

WE have now arrived where, black and grand, St PauFs 
Cathedral occupies the platform on the top of the 
hill. Sublimely grandiose in its general outlines, it has a 
peculiar sooty dignity all its own, which, externally, raises it 
immeasurably above the fresh modern-looking St. Peter's 
at Rome. As G. A. Sala says, in one of his capital papers, 
it is really the better for "all the incense which all the 
chimneys since the time of Wren have offered at its shrine, 
and are still flinging up every day from their foul and 
grimy censers." Here and there only is the original grey of 
the stone seen through the overlying blackness, which in 
early spring is intensified by the green grass and trees of the 
churchyard which surrounds the eastern part of the building. 
When you are near it, the mighty dome is lost, but you have 
always an inward all-pervading impression of its existence, 
as you have seen it a thousand times rising in dark majesty 
over the»city; or as, lighted up by the sun, it is sometimes 
visible from the river, when all minor objects are obliterated 
in mist. And, apart from the dome, the noble proportions 
of every pillar and cornice of the great church cannot fail 
to strike those who linger to look at them, while even the 



HISTORY OF ST. PAUL'S. 129 

soot-begrimed garlands, which would be offensive were 
they dean, have here an indescribable stateliness. 

" St. Paxil's appears to me unspeakably grand and noble, and the 
more so from the throng and bustle continually going on around its 
base, without in the least disturbing the sublime repose of its great 
dome, and, indeed of all its massive height and breadth. Other 
edifices may crowd close to its foundation and people may tramp as 
they like about it ; but still the great cathedral is as quiet and serene 
as if it stood in the middle of Salisbury Plain. There cannot be any 
thing else in its way so good in the world as just this effect of St. 
Paul's in the very heart and densest tumult of London. It is much 
better than staring white ; the edifice would not be nearly so grand 
without this drapery of black." — Hawthorne. English Note Books. 

When Sir Christopher Wren was laying the foundations 
of the present cathedral, he found relics of three different 
ages at three successive depths beneath the site of his church 
— first, Saxon coffins and tombs ; secondly, British graves, 
with the wooden and ivory pins which fastened the shrouds 
of those who lay in them ; thirdly, Roman lamps, lacryma- 
tories, and urns, proving the existence of a Roman ceme- 
tery on the spot.* It has never with any certainty been 
ascertained when the first church was built here, but, 
according to Bede, it was erected by Ethelbert, King of 
Kent, and his nephew Sebert, King of the East Angles, 
and was the church where Bishop Mellitus refused the 
sacrament to the pagan princes. 

" Sebert, departing to the everlasting kingdom of Heaven, left his 
three sons, who were yet pagans, heirs of his temporal kingdom on 
earth. Immediately on their father's decease they began openly to 
practise idolatry (though whilst he lived they had somewhat re- 
frained), and also gave free license to their subjects to worship idols. 
Al a certain time these princes, seeing the Bishop (of London) 
ftdministeiMig the Sacrament to the people of the church, after the 

• " Parentalia** (by Wren's grandson), p. 226. 
VOL. I. K 



130 



WALKS IN LONDON, 



celebration of mass, and being puffed up with rude and barbarous 
folly, spake, as the common report is, thus unto him : * Why dost thou 
not give us, also, some of that white bread which thou didst give unto 
our father Saba and which thou does not yet cease to give to the 
people in the church ? ' He answered, * If ye will be washed in that 
wholesome font wherein your father was washed, ye may likewise eat 
of this blessed bread of which he was a partaker ; but if ye condemn 
the lavatory of life, ye can m no wise taste the bread of hfe.' * We will 
not,' they rejoined, * enter into this font of wate^, for we know that we 
have no need to do so ; but we will eat of that bread nevertheless.' 
And when they had been often and earnestly warned by the bishop 
that it could not be, and that no man could partake of this holy obla- 
tion without purification and cleansing by baptism, they at length, 
in the height of their rage, said to him, * Well, if thou wilt not comply 
with us in the small matter we ask, thou shalt no longer abide in our 
province and dominions,' and straightway they expelled him, command- 
ing that he and all his company should quit their realm." — Bede. 

St. Paul's has been burnt five times ; thrice by fire from 
heaven. It attained its final magnificence when, in the 
thirteenth century, it was a vista of Gothic aiches, seven 
hundred feet in length. At the east end was the shrine of 
St. Erkenwald, its fourth bishop, the son of King Ofia, 
containing a great sapphire which had the reputation 
of curing diseases of the eye. In the centre of the nave was 
the tomb of Sir John Beauchamp, son of the great Earl of 
Warwick, and Constable of Dover — a tomb which was popu- 
larly known as that of Duke Humphrey (of Gloucester), 
really buried at St. Albans. The rest of the church was 
crowded with monuments. Against the south wall were the 
tombs of two Bishops of London, Eustace de Fauconberge, 
Justice of Common Pleas in the reign of John, and Henry 
de Wengham, Chancellor of Henry III. In St. Dunstan's 
Chapel was the fine tomb of Henry de Lacy, Earl of Lin- 
coln (1310), who left his name to Lincoln's Inn. Kemp, 
Bishop of London, who built Paul's Cross Pulpit, also had 



MONUMENTS OF ST, PAUVS, 131 

a chapel of his own. In the north aisle were the tombs of 
Ralph de Hengham, judge in the time of Edward I. ; of 
Sir Simon Burley, tutor and guardian to Richard II. (a 
noble figure in armour in a tomb with Gothic arches) ; and, 
ascending to' a far earlier time, of Sebba, King of the East 
Angles, in the seventh century ; and of Ethelred the Un- 
ready (1016), son of Edgar and Elfrida, in whose grave 
his grandson Edward Atheling is also believed to have 
been buried. 

The choir of St. Paul's was as entirely surrounded by 
important tombs as those of Canterbury and West- 
minster are now. On th^ left were the shrine of Bishop 
Roger Niger; the oratory of Roger de Waltham, canon 
in the time of Edward II. ; and the magnificent tomb 
of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster (1399), son, 
father, and uncle of kings, upon which he was represented 
with his first wife Blanche, who died of the plague, 1369, 
and in which his second wife, Constance, " mulier super 
feminas innocens et devota," * was also buried. On the right 
was the tomb of Sir Nicholas Bacon (1578), father of the 
Lord Chancellor Bacon; and the gorgeous monument of 
Sir Christopher Hatton, Lord Chancellor (1591), one of 
the great fashionable tombs of Elizabeth's time, which took 
so much room as only to allow of tablets to Sir Philip 
Sydney and his father-in-law. Sir Francis Walsingham, Eliza- 
beth's secretary, thus occasioning Stow's epigram : — 

" Philip and Francis have no tomb, 
For great Christopher takes all the room." 

In the south aisle of the choir were monuments to 
Dean Colet, founder of St. Paul's School, and to Dr. Donne, 

* Walsingham. 



132 WALKS IN LONDON. 

the poet, also Dean of St. Paul's. In the north choii 

aisle, behind the tomb of John of Gaunt, Vandyke was 

buried in 1641.* 

Against the waU of old St. Paul's at the S.W. comer was 

the parish church of St. Gregory, which was pulled down 

c. 1645. It was the existence of this building which 

caused Fuller to describe old St. Paul's as being " truly 

the mother church, having one babe in her body — St. 

Faith's, and another in her arms — St. Gregory's." The 

north cloister, or " Pardon Churchyard," was surrounded 

by the frescoes of the Dance of Death, the " Dance of 

Paul's," executed for John Carpenter, town-clerk of London 

in the reign of Henry V. Here was the long-remembered 

epitaph : 

** Vixi, peccavi, penitui, Naturae cessi." 

A chapel founded by Thomas-a-Becket's father, Gilbert, rose 
in the midst of the cloister, where he was buried with his 
family in a tomb which was always visited by a new Lord 
Mayor when he attended service in St. Paul's : it was 
destroyed with the cloister in 1549 by Edward, Duke of 
Somerset. 

" Old S. Paul's must have been a magnificeut building. The long 
perspective view of the twelve-bayed nave and twelve-bayed choir, 
with a splendid wheel window at the East end, must have been very 
striking. The Chapter House embosomed in its Cloister ; the little 
Church of S. Gregory nestling against the breast of the tall Cathedral ; 
the enormously lofty and majestic steeple with its graceful flying 
buttresses, together with the various chapels and shrines filled with 
precious stones, must have combined to produce a most magnificent 
effect ; and the number of tombs and monuments of illustrious men 
must have given an interest to the building, perhaps even more than 
equal to that now felt in Westminster Abbey." — W. Longtnan, 

• For the other tombs of St. Paul's see Weever*s " Funeral Monumenti. 



DESECRATION OF ST. PAUL'S. 133 

It was in the old St. Paul's that King John, in 12 13, 
acknowledged the supremacy of the Pope. There (1337) 
Wickliffe was cited to appear and answer for his heresies 
before Courtenay, Bishop of London, and came attended 
and protected by John of Gaunt, and a long train of illus- 
trious persons. There John of Gaunt's son, afterwards 
Henry IV., wept by his father's grave, and there with mock- 
ing solemnity he exposed the body of Richard II. after his 
murder at Pdntefract, and — 

" At Poules his Masse was done and diryge, 
In hers royall, semely to royalte ; 
The Kyng and Lordes, clothes of golde there offerde, 
Some VIII. some IX, upon his hers were proferde." 

In 1 40 1 the first English martyr, William Sawtre, was 
stripped of all his priestly vestments in St. Paul's before 
being sent to the stake at Smithfield. Hither, after the 
death of Henry V., came his widow, Katherine de Valois, 
in a state litter with her child upon her knee, and the little 
Henry VI. was led into the choir by the Duke Protector and 
the Duke of Exeter that he might be seen by the people. 
Here the body of the same unhappy king was exhibited 
that his death might be believed. Here also the bodies of 
Warwick the king-maker and his brother were exposed for 
three days. On Shrove-Tuesday, 1527, the Protestant 
Bible was publicly burnt in St. Paul's by Cardinal Wolsey. 

Early in the sixteenth century St. Paul's had been de- 
secrated to such an extent as to have become known rather 
as an exchange and house of merchandise than as a church. 
Its central aisle, says Bishop Earle,* resounded to " a kind 
of still roar or loud whisper." " The south alley," writes 
Dekker, in 1607, "was the place for usury and popery, 

* Microcosmographia. 



134 WALKS IN LONDON, 

the north for simony, the horse-fair in the midst for all kind 
of bargains, meetings, brawlings, murthers, conspiracies, 
and the font for ordinary payments of money." The simony 
in St. Paul's was famous even in Chaucer's time. His 
parson is described as one who — 

** sette not his benefice to hire 

And left his sheep accombered in the mire 
And ran unto London, unto S. PouVs 
To seeken him a chanterie for souls," &c. 

In the north aisle was the " Si Quis Door," so called from 
the placards beginning " Si quis invenerit " with which it 
was defiled. Its situation is pointed out by a passage in 
Hall's satires. 

" Sawst thou ever Si quis patched on Paul's Church door, 
To seek some vacant vicarage before ? 
Who wants a churchman that can service say, 
Read fast and fair his monthly homily, 
And wed, and bury, and make christian souls, 
Come to the left-side alley of Saint Paul's." 

Virgidemiarum, Sat. v. Bk. tiu 

That people were in the habit of bringing b'irthens into 
the church is proved by the inscription over the poor-box — 

*< And those that shaU enter within the church doore, 
With burthen or basket, must give to the poore. 
And if there be any aske what they must pay, 
— To this Box a penny, ere they pass away." 

The middle aisle of the nave, called " Paul's Walk," or 
" Duke Humphrey's Walk " from the tomb there, was the 
fashionable promenade of London, and " Paul's Walkers "* 
was the popular name for " young men about town." 

" It was the fashion of the times, for the principal gentry, lords, 
commons, and all professions, not meerely mechanick, to meet in St. 

• Moser's "Europ. Mag.," July, 1817 



NEW ST, PAUL'S, 135 

Paul's Chiirch by eleven, and walk in the middle ile till twelve, and 
after dinner frcm three to six, during which time some discoursed of 
businesse, others of newes." — Francis Osborne. 1658. 

" While Devotion meets at her prayers, doth Profanation walk under 
her nose in contempt of religion." — Dekker, 1607. 

A Corinthian portico, of which the first stone was laid by 
Laud, was built by Inigo Jones, to lessen this confusion, 
being intended, says Dryden, as " an ambulatory for such 
as usually walking in the body of the church destroyed the 
solemn service of the choir." It is believed that Charles I. 
meant this portico merely as the first instalment of a new 
cathedral, but his attention was otherwise occupied, and 
under the Commonwealth, the soldiers of Cromwell stabled 
their horses in the nave. With the Restoration it was 
intended to restore the old church, but, in the words of 
Dryden, — 

" The daring flames peep'd in, and saw from far 
The awful beauties of the sacred quire : 
And since it was profan'd by civil war, 
Heaven thought it fit to have it purg'd by fire." 

Annus Mirabilis. 

Christopher Wren, son of a Dean of Windsor, was 
chosen as the architect of the new church, and on June 
21, 1675, was laid the first stone of the New St. Faul's, 
which was finished in thirty-five years. When he was occu- 
pied on St. Paul's, Wren was consulted as to the repairs of 
Ely Cathedral, a building which took such hold upon his 
mind, that, in spite of the difi"erence of styles, an architect 
may detect his admiration for the great church of the 
eastern counties in many details of St. Paul's, not always 
with advantage, as in the case of the meaningless arches 
which break the simplicity of the cornice in the pillars 
of the dome. The whole cost, ;£747,954 2s. 9^., was 



136 WALKS IN LONDON. 

paid by a tax on every chaldron of coal brought into 
the Port of London, on which account it is said that 
the cathedral has a special claim of its own to its smoky 
exterior. It will be admitted that, though in general 
efiect there is nothing in the same style of architecture 
which exceeds the exterior of St. Paul's, it has not a 
single detail deserving of attention, except the Phoenix 
over the south portico, which was executed by Cibber, 
and commemorates the curious fact narrated in the 
" Parentalia," that the very first stone which Sir Chris- 
topher Wren directed a mason to bring from the rubbish 
of the old church to serve as a mark for the centre of the 
dome in his plans, was inscribed with the single word 
Resurgam — I shall rise again. The other ornaments and 
statues are chiefly by Bird, a most inferior sculptor. Those 
who find greater faults must, however, remember that 
St. Paul's, as it now stands, is not according to the first 
design of Wren, the rejection of which cost him bitter tears. 
Even in his after work he met with so many rubs and 
rufiles, and was so insufficiently paid, that the Duchess of 
Marlborough said, in allusion to his scaffold labours, " He 
is dragged up and down in a basket two or three times in a 
week for an insignificant ;£"20o a year." 

" The exterior of S. Paul's consists throughout of two orders, the 
lower being Corinthian, the upper Composite. It is built externally 
in two stories, in both of which, except at the north and south porticos 
and at the west front, the whole of the entablatures rest on coupled 
pilasters, between which, in the lower order, a range of circular-headed 
windows is introduced. But in the order above, the corresponding 
spaces are occupied by dressed niches standing on pedestals pierced 
with openings to light the passages in the roof over the side aisles. 
The upper order is nothing but a screen to hide the flying buttresses 
earned across from the outer walls to resist the thrust of the great 
vaulting." — W. Longman. 



STATUE OF QUEEN ANNE, 



f37 



That the west front of the cathedral does not exactly 
face Ludgate Hill is due to the fact that too many houses 
were already built to allow of it, the commissioners for 
reconstructing the city having made their plans before 
anything was decided about the new cathedral. The 
Statue of Queen Amie^ in Iront of the church, has gained 
a certain picturesqueness through age, and the fine old 




In front of St. Paul's. 



railing of wrought Lamberhurst iron which surrounds it. 
It is historically interesting here as commemorating the 
frequent state visits of Queen Anne to the church to return 
public thanks for the repeated victories of the Duke of 
Marlborough. Lately the effect of the west front has, in 
the opinion of many, been much injured by the removal 
of the iron railing of the churchyard which (though not 



138 WALKS IN LONDON. 

part of Wren's design) was invaluable for comparison and 
measurement, and which fully carried out the old Gothic 
theory that a slight and partial concealment only gives 
additional dignity to a really grand building. Besides, the 
railing was in itself fine, and (part of it remains at the 
sides) cost above ;£"! 1,202. It must, however, be con- 
ceded that the railing was first put up in opposition to 
the wish of Wren, who objected to its height as con- 
cealing the base of the cathedral and the western flight of 
steps ; and that its destruction was chiefly due to the 
wish of Dean Milman, who abused it as a " heavy, clumsy, 
misplaced fence." 

It may be interesting to those who are acquainted with 
the two great churches to compare their proportions on the 

spot 

St. Paul's. * St. Peter's. 

According to Fontana's plaiL, 

Length 500 630 

Breadth 250 440 

"Width of nave ... 118 220 

Height to top of Cross 365 437 

The Interior of St. Paul's is not without a grandeur of 
its own, but in detail it is bare, cold, and uninteresting, 
though Wren intended to have lined the dome with mosaics, 
and to have placed a grand baldacchino in the choir. 
Though a comparison with St. Peter's inevitably forces 
itself upon those who are familiar with the great Roman 
basilica, there can scarcely be a greater contrast than be- 
tween the two buildings. There, all is blazing with precious 
marbles ; here, there is no colour except from the poor glass 
of the eastern windows, or where a tattered banner waves 
above a hero's monument. In the blue depths of the 



INTERIOR OF ST, PAUL'S. 139 

misty dome, the London fog loves to linger, and hides the 
remains of some feeble frescoes by Thomhill, Hogarth's 
father-in-law. In St. Paul's, as in St. Peter's, the statues 
on the monuments destroy the natural proportion of the 
arches by their monstrous size, but they have seldom any 
beauty or grace to excuse them. The week-day services * 
are thinly attended, and, from the nave, it seems as if the 
knot of worshippers near the choir were lost in the im- 
mensity, and the peals of the organ and the voices of the 
choristers were vibrating through an arcaded solitude. In 
1773, Dr. Newton, as Dean of St. Paul's, conceded to the 
wish of Sir Joshua Reynolds, then President of the Academy, 
that the unsightly blank spaces on the walls of the cathe- 
dral should be filled with works by academicians. Sir Joshua 
himself promised the Nativity, West the Delivery of the 
Law by Moses. Barry, Dance, Cipriani, and Angelica 
Kaufmann were selected by the Academy for the other 
works. But when Dr. Terrick, then Bishop of London, 
heard of the intention, he peremptorily refused his consent. 
— " Whilst I live and have the power," he wrote to Bishop 
Newton, " I will never suffer the doors of the Metropolitan 
Church to be opened to Popery." It was then proposed 
only to put up the works of West and Reynolds — the 
Foundation of the Law and Gospel — over the doors of the 
north and south aisles, but the concession was absolutely 
refused, and the cathedral was left in its bareness.! 

The central space under the dome is now employed for 
the Sunday Evening Service, a use which Dean Milman 
considered "was no doubt contemplated by Wren." 

• The services are at 10 a.m. and 3.30 p.m. 

t See Leslie and Taylor's " Life of Sir J. Reynolds." 



I40 WALKS IN LONDON, 

" Many persons entering the cathedral suppose that the dome over 
their heads is the actual lining of the external dome. They are ijot 
aware that it is a shell, of a different form from the outer structure, 
with a brick cone between it and the outer skin — so to speak ; that 
this brick cone is supported by the main walls and the great arches of 
the Cathedral, and that the brick cone supports the outer structure, 
the lantern, the upper cupola, and the gilt cross and ball ; or that 
again between the brick cone and the outer skin is a curious net-work 
of wooden beams supporting the latter." — W. Longman. 

Over the north porch is an inscription to Sir Christopher 
Wren, ending with the " four words which comprehend his 
merit and his fame," — '* Si monumentum requiris, circum- 
spice." The oratories at the sides of the nave were added 
against the wishes of Wren, at the instance of the Duke of 
York, who secretly wished to have them ready for Roman 
Catholic services, as soon as an opportunity occurred. 
They have been greatly condemned, as interfering in the 
lines of the building on the outside, but do not affect the 
interior. One of them is appropriated as a Baptistery. 
That which opens from the south aisle, long the Bishop's 
Consistory Court, contains the monument, by A. G. Stevens^ 
of Arthur, First Duke of Wellington, the noblest tomb 
erected in England since Torregiano was working at West- 
minster. The aged Duke lies, like a Scaliger of Verona, 
deeply sleeping upon a lofty bronze sarcophagus. Around 
the base are the names of his victories. At the sides of the 
canopy, which is supported by noble pillars of the best 
period of the Renaissance, are grand figures in bronze, of 
Courage suppressing Cowardice, and Virtue suppressing 
Vice. The whole was to have been surmounted, like the 
great tomb of Can Grande, by an equestrian statue ; but 
this was opposed by Dean Milman, and the artist, the 
greatest sculptor of our time, was snatched away before his 



MONUMENTS OF ST, PAUL'S. 141 

work was completed, and before England had awaked to 
realise that it possessed a worthy follower of Michael 
Angelo. 

The narrow effect of the choir is much increased by 
the organ galleries on either side the entrance, and the 
carved stalls by Grinling Gibbons, for which he received 
£^^ZZZ 7^' S^' The organ (1694) is by Dr. Schmydt, 
who constructed that at the Temple. 

*♦ I should wish to see such decorations introduced into St. Paul's 
as may give splendour, while they would not disturb the solemnity, or 
the exquisitely harmonious simplicity, of the edifice ; some colour to 
enliven and gladden the eye, from foreign or native marbles, the most 
permanent and safe modes of embellishing a building exposed to the 
atmosphere of London. I would see the dome, instead of brooding 
like a dead weight over the area below, expanding and elevating the 
soul towards Heaven. I would see the sullen white of the roof, the 
arches, the cornices, the capitals, and the walls, broken and relieved 
by gilding, as we find it by experience the most lasting, as well as the 
most appropriate decoration. 1 would see the adornment carried out 
in a rich and harmonious (and as far as possible from gaudy) style, in 
unison with our simpler form of worship." — Dean Milman — Letter to 
the Bishop of London. 

The monuments are mostly merely commemorative, and 
are nearly all feeble and meretricious, in many cases abso- 
lutely ludicrous. Beneath the dome are the four which 
were first erected in the cathedral. Those of Howard and 
Johnson, on either side of the entrance to the choir, are 
hy John Bacon, whose works had such extraordinary renown 
in the last century. The prison key which is held by Howard 
and the scroll in the hand of Johnson " countenance the 
mistake of a distinguished foreigner who paid his respects 
to them as St. Peter and St. Paul."* The statue on the 
right in a Roman toga and tunic, bare-legged and san- 

* Allan Cunningham's " Life of Bacon." 



142 WALKS IN LONDON, 

dalled, is intended for Howard, who died, 1790, at Cherson 
in Russian Tartary, whither he went in the benevolent 
hope of discovering a remedy for the Plague. 

" The first statue admitted at S. Paul's was, not that of statesman, 
warrior or even of sovereign ; it was that of John Howard the pilgrim, 
not to gorgeous shrines of saints and martyrs, not ev^en to holy lands, 
but to the loathsome depths and darkness of the prisons throughout 
what called itself the civilised worid. Howard first exposed to the 
shuddering sight of manldnd the horrible barbarities, the foul and 
abominable secrets, of those dens of unmitigated suff'ering. By the 
exposure he at least let some light and air into those earthly hells. 
Perhaps no man has assuaged so much human misery as John Howard ; 
and John Howard rightly took his place at one comer of the dome of 
S. Paul's, the genuine disciple of Him among whose titles to our 
veneration and love not the least befitting, not the least glorious, was 
that He ' went about doing good.' " — Dean Milman, 

The statue of Dr. Johnson (buried at Westminster) was 
erected at the urgent desire of Sir Joshua Reynolds. 
The figure, representing a half-naked muscular athlete, 
is utterly uncharacteristic, yet its associations are in- 
teresting. 

*' Though Johnson was buried in the Abbey among his brother men 
of letters, yet there was a singular propriety in the erection of Johnson's 
statue in S. Paul's. . Among the most frequent and regular communi- 
cants at the altar of the cathedral might be seen a man whose ungainly 
gestures and contortions of countenance evinced his profound awe, 
reverence, and satisfaction at that awful mystery ; this was Samuel 
Johnson, who on all the great festivals wandered up from his humble 
lodgings in Bolt Court, or its neighbourhood, to the Cathedral. John- 
son might be well received as the representative of the literature of 
England." — Dean Milman, 

The pedestal, on which the statue stands, bears a long 
Latin inscription by Dr. Parr, which aptly describes Johnson 
as " ponderibus verborum admirabilis." 

" The inscription is in a language which ten millions out of twelve 
that see it cannot read. To come a step lower, there is a period inserted 



MONUMENTS OF ST, PAUL'S. 143 

between every word. In the ancient inscription, which this professes 
to imitate, similar marks are placed, but then spaces were not left 
between the words. In short, the mark in the old Latin inscriptions 
had a meaning — the dot in the modem pedantic epitaph has no mean- 
ing at all, and merely embarrasses the sense." — Allan Cunningham, 

The next monument erected was that by Flaxman to 
Sir Joshua Reynolds — " pictorum sui saeculi facile princeps." 
Then came the monument, by J, Bacon, of Sir William 
Jones, who "first opened the poetry and wisdom of our 
Indian Empire to wondering Europe." * After these statues 
followed a series of the heroes of Nelson's naval victories 
and of Indian warriors and statesmen. Few of these call for 
attention except from their absurdity, yet, as many visitors 
make the round of the church, we may notice (omitting 
reliefs invisible from their high position, and beginning 
at the south-west door, where the banners from Inkerman 
hang) those of — 

Captain R. Rundle Burgess (1797), the last work of Batiks. The 
captain, Commander of the Ardent, who fell in the naval battle with 
the Dutch off Camperdown, under Admiral Rodney, is represented 
perfectly naked, apathetically receiving a sword from Victory. 

Thomas Fanshawe Middleton, Bishop of Calcutta (1822), is repre- 
sented theatrically blessing two native converts, in a group by J. G, 
Lough. 

Captain E. M. Lyons, mortally wounded {1855) on board the 
Miranda at Sebastopol— a relief by (i. Noble. 

Captain G. Blagdon Westcott, who fell at the Battle of the Nile 
(1805), by Banks— \iQ is represented sinldng into the arms of Victory 
and upsetting her by his fall. 

"The two naval officers (Westcott and Burgess) are naked, which 
destroys historic probability ; it cannot be a representation of what 
happened, for no British warriors go naked into battle, or wear sandals 
or Asiatic mantles. As little can it be accepted as strictly poetic, for 
the heads of the heroes are modem and the bodies antique ; every-day 
noses and chins must not be supported on bodies mouldea according 

* Dean Milman. 



144 WALKS IN LONDON, 

to the god-like proportions of the Greek statues. Having offended 
alike the lovers of poetry and the lovers of truth, Banks next gave 
offence to certain grave divines, who noted that the small line of 
drapery which droops over the shoulder as far as the middle of Captain 
Burgess, 

♦ In longitude was sairly scanty,' 

like the drapery of the young witch of the poet. Banks added a hand- 
breadth to it with no little reluctance. When churchmen declared 
themselves satisfied, the ladies thought they might venture to draw 
near — but the flutter of fans and the averting of faces was prodigious. 
That Victory, a modest and well-draped dame, should approach an 
undrest dpng man, and crown him with laurel, might be endured — 
but how a well-dressed young lady could think of presenting a sword 
to a naked gentleman went far beyond all their notions of propriety." 
—Allan Cunningham. 

Sir Isaac Brock, who fell in the defence of Queenstown (1812) — a 
relief by Westmacott. 

Dr. William Babington (1833) — a statue by Behnes. 

Admiral lord Lyons (1858) — a statue by Noble. 

Sir Ralph Abercromby {i^oi), mortally wounded on the landing of 
the British troops in Egypt— a wildly confused group by Westmacott. 

Sir John Moore, who fell at Corunna (1809), hy Bacon — he is re- 
presented as lowered into his coffin by Fame and a naked soldier. 

Sir Astley Boston Cooper, the eminent surgeon (1842) — a statue by 
Baily. 

Sir W. Hoste (1833)— a statue by T. Campbell. 

Sir Robert Rollo Gillespie (1 804), who fell at Kalunga in Napaul — a 
statue by Chantrey. 

Horatio, Lord Nelson, who fell at Trafalgar (1805) — a group hy Flax- 
man, with a most abominable lion. 

Charles Marquis Cor?iwallis, Governor-General of Bengal (1805) — 
a group by Rossi. 

Sir E. Pakenham and General Samuel Gibbs, who fell at the siege 
of New Orleans (18 15) — statues by Westmacott. 

George Elliott, Lord Heathfield (1790), the Defender of Gibraltar-— 
a statue by Rossi. 

y. M. W. Turner, the artist (1851) — a statue by Macdowell. 

Cuthhei-f, Lord Collin gzv ood {\^\o), who died in command of the 
Mediterranean Fleet — a monument by R. Westmacott. The almost 
naked body of the Admiral lies in a galley. 

Admiral Earl Howe [i"] ()()), who vanquished the French fleet off 
Ushant — a fine statue, in a group by Flaxman. 



MONUMENTS OF ST. PAUL'S. 145 

Sif John Thomas Jones (1843) — statue by Behnes. 

Sir Herry Montgomery Lawrence, who died in the defence of Luck- 
now (1857) — a statue by Lough. 

(South aisle of Choir) Henry Milman, Dean of St. Paul's (1869) — 
an altar tomb with an admirable portrait statue by F. y. Williaynson. 

Charles James Blomfield, Bishop of London (1756) — an altar tomb 
with a striking statue by G, Richmond, R.A. 

^Reginald Heber, Bishop of Calcutta — a striking figure and likeness 
by Chantrey. 

Over door) General Foord Bowes, who fell at Salamanca (18 1 2) — a 
rehef by Chantrey. 

Passing the Choir, in the North Aisle) Henry Hallam, the historian 
(1859)— a statue by Theed. 

Admiral Charles Napier (i860) — a relief by Adams. 

Captain Robert Mosse and Captain Edmond Riou, who fell in 
attacldng Copenhagen (1801)— a group of angels holding medallions 
by C. Rossi. 

Sir Willia7n Ponsonby, who fell at Waterloo (18 15). The hero is re- 
presented stark naked in this ridiculous monument by E. H. Baily. . 

General Charles T. Napier (1853)— a statue by Adams. 

Adam, Viscount Duncan {i8i/\.), victorious over the Dutch fleet in 
1799— a statue by PVestmacott. 

General Arthur Gore and General John Byrne Skeritt, who fell at 
the siege of Bergen ap Zoom, 1814 — a group by Chantrey. 

General T. Dimdas (1795), distinguished by the reduction of the 
French "West Indian Islands — monument by J. Bacon, jun. 

Captain Robert Faulknor, commander of the Blanche, who fell in a 
naval battle in the West Indies, 1 796 — monument by Rossi. 

General William Francis Patrick Napier {i860)— z statue hy Adams. 

General Andrew ZToj', who feU at Bayonne, 18 14. The general is 
seen falling, in full uniform, into the arms of a naked soldier, in a mar- 
vellous group by H. Hopper. 

John, Earl of St. Vincent, the hero of Cape St. Vincent (1823)— by 
Baily. 

Sir Thomas Picton, lulled at Waterloo (18 15) — a ludicrous figure of a 
Roma^ Warrior receiving a wreath from Victory by Gahagan. 

Admiral Lord Rodney (1792) — a group by C. Rossi. 

Mountstuari Elphinstone, Governor of Bombay (1859)— a statue by 
Noble. 

Admiral Sir Pulteney Malcolm (1838) — a statue by Baily. 

Brass Plates to the Officers atid Seamen lost in H.M.S. Captain, 
Sept. I, 1870. 

* Frederick, Viscount Melbourne, the early Prime Minister of Queen 

VOL. I. L 



146 WALKS IN LONDON. 

Victoria — two grand sleeping angels leaning on their swords by a bronze 
doorway ; a fine work of Marochetti. 

Sir A. Wellesley Torrens, who fell at Inkerman, 1855. Relief in 
memory of Ofl&cers and Privates who fell in the Crimean war, 1854 — 
1856. 

The most interesting portion of the church is the Crypt^ 
where, at the eastern extremity, are gathered nearly all the 
remains of the tombs which were saved from the old 
St. Paul's. Here repose the head and half the body of 
Sir Nicholas Bacon (1579), Lord Keeper of the Great Seal 
in the reign of Elizabeth and father of Francis, Lord Bacon. 
Other fragments represent William Cokain, 1626 ; William 
Hewit, 1597; and John WoUey and his wife, 1595. 
There are tablets to "Sir Simon Baskerville the rich," 
physician to James I. and Charles L, 1641 ; and to Brian, 
Bishop of Chester, 1661. The tomb of John Martin, book- 
seller, and his wife, 1680, was probably the first monument 
erected in the crypt of new St. Paul's. The east end of 
the crypt is used for service as a chapel : its mosaic pave- 
ment is the work of the female penitents at Wokingham. 
Only one figure from the old St. Paul's has been lately given 
a place in the new church. In the Dean's Aisle now stands 
erect the strange figure from the monument of ^^. Donne 
the Poet-Dean^ whose sermons, in the words of Dr. Milman, 
held the congregation " enthralled, unwearied, unsatiated," 
and caused one of his poetical panegyrists towrite — 

** And never were we wearied, tiU we saw 
The hour, and but an hour, to end did draw." 

Donne's friend, Sir Henry Wootton, said of this statue, " It 
seem? to breathe faintly, and posterity shall look upon il as 
a kind of artificial miracle." The Dean is represented in 



MONUMENT OF DR. DONNE, 147 

a winding-sheet. By the suggestion of his friend Dr. Fox. 
he stripped himself in his study, draped himself in his 
shroud, and, standing upon an urn, which he had procured 
for the purpose, closed his eyes, and so stood for a por- 
trait, which was afterwards the object of his perpetual con- 
templation, and which after his death in 1630 was repro- 
duced in stone by Nicholas Stone, the famous sculptor. The 
present position of the statue unfortunately renders abortive 
the concluding lines of the Latin epitaph, which refer to 
the eastward position of the figure. 

" John Donne, Doctor of Divinity, after various studies^ — pursued by 
him from his earliest years with assiduity, and not without success, — 
entered into Holy Orders, under the influence and impulse of the 
Divine Spirit, and by the advice and exhortation of King James, in the 
year of his Saviour, 1614, and of his own age, 42. Having been 
invested with the Deanery of this church, Nov. 27th, 162 1, he was 
stripped of it by death, on the last day of March, 1631, and here, 
though set in dust, he beholdeth Him whose name is the Rising." * 

Dryden calls Donne — 

•* The greatest wit, though not the greatest poet, of our nation ; " 

and Izaak Walton describes him as — 

" A preacher in earnest ; weeping sometimes for his auditory, some- 
times with them ; always preaching to himself like an angel from a 
cloud, but in none ; carr^dng some, as St. Paul was, to heaven, in holy 
raptures ; and enticing others by a sacred art and courtship to amend 
their lives ; here picturing a vice so as to make it ugly to those that 
practised it, and a virtue so as to make it beloved even by those who 
loved it not ; and all this with a most particular grace and an inexpres- 
sible addition of comeliness." 

In the Crypt, not far from the old St. Paul's tombs, the 
revered Dean Milm.an, the great historian of the church 
(best known, perhaps, by his " History of the Jews," his 

• Translation by Archdeacon Wrangham in " Walton's Lives." 



148 WALKS IN LONDON, 

" History of Latin Christianity," and his contributions to 
" Heber's Hymns "), is now buried under a simple tomb 
ornamented with a raised cross. In a recess on the south 
is the slab tomb of Sir Christopher Wren, and near him, 
in other chapels, Robert Mylne, the architect of old Black- 
friars Bridge, and John Rennie, the architect of Waterloo 
Bridge. Beneath the pavement lies Sir Joshua Reynolds 
(1742), who had an almost royal funeral in St. Paul's, 
dukes and marquises contending for the honour of being 
his pall-bearers. Around him are buried his disciples 
and followers — Lawrence (1830), Barry (1806), Opie 
(1807), West (1820), Fuseli (1825) ; but the most remark- 
able grave is that of William Mallory Turner, whose dying 
request was that he might be buried as near as possible to 
Sir Joshua. 

Where tlie heavy pillars and arches gather thick beneath 
the dome, in spite of his memorable words at the battle of 
the Nile — " Victory or Westminster Abbey " — is the grave of 
Lord Nelson. Followed to the grave by the seven sons of his 
sovereign, he was buried here in 1806, when Dean Milman, 
who was present, " heard, or seemed to hear, the low wail of 
the sailors who encircled the remains of their admiral." 
They tore to pieces the largest of the flags of the Victory, 
which waved above his grave ; the rest were buried with his 
coffin.* 

The sarcophagus of Nelson was designed and executed 
for Cardinal Wolsey by the famous Torregia7io, and was 
intended to contain the body of Henry VIII. in the tomb- 
house at Windsor. It encloses the coffin made from the 
mast of the ship L Orient^ which was presented to Nelson, 

• The Times, Jan. lo, i8o6. 



LIBRARY OF ST. PAUL'S. . 149 

after the battle of the Nile, by Ben Hallowell, captain of 
the Swifisure^ that, when he was tired of life, he might 
" be buried in one of his own trophies." On either side 
of Nelson repose the minor heroes of Trafalgar, ColUngwood 
(18 10) and Lord Norihesk ; Picton also lies near him, but 
outside the surrounding arches. 

A second huge sarcophagus of porphyry resting on lions 
is the tomb where Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington^ 
was laid in 1852, in the presence of 15,000 spectators, Dean 
Milman, who had been present at Nelson's funeral, then 
reading the service. Beyond the tomb of Nelson, in a 
ghastly ghost-befitting chamber hung with the velvet which 
surrounded his lying in state at Chelsea, and on which, by 
the flickering torchlight, we see emblazoned the many 
Orders presented to him by foreign sovereigns, is the 
funeral car of Wellington, modelled and constructed in six 
weeks, at an expense of ;£ 13,000, from the guns taken in 
his difi'erent campaigns. 

In the south-west pier of the dome a staircase ascends 
by 616 steps to the highest point of the cathedral. No 
feeble person should attempt the fatigue, and, except to 
architects, the undertaking is scarcely worth while. An 
easy ascent leads to the immense passages of the triforium, 
in which, opening from the gallery above the south aisle, 
is the Library, founded by Bishop Corapton, who crowned 
William and Mary, Archbishop Seeker refusing to do so. 
It contains the bishop's portrait, and some carving by 
Gibbons. 

At the corner of the gallery, on the left, a very narrow 
stair leads to the Clocks of enormous size, with a pendulum 
16 feet long, constructed by Langley Bradley in 1708. 



150 WALK'S IN LONDON, 

Ever since, the oaken seats behind it have been occupied 
by a changing crowd, waiting with anxious curiosity to see 
the hammer strike its bell, and tremulously hoping to 
tremble at the vibration. 

Returning, another long ascent leads to the Whispering 
Gallery^ below the windows of the cupola, where visitors 
are requested to sit down upon a matted seat, that they 
may be shown how a low whisper uttered against the wall 
can be distinctly heard from the other side of the dome. 
Hence we reach the Stone Gallery^ outside the base of the 
dome, whence we may ascend to the Golden Gallery at its 
summit. This last ascent is interesting, as being between 
the outer and inner domes, and showing how completely 
different in construction one is from the other. The view 
from the gallery is vast, but generally, beyond a certain 
distance, it is shrouded in smoke. Sometimes, one stands 
aloft in a clear atmosphere, while beneath the fog rolls like 
a sea, through which the steeples and towers are just visible 
" like the masts of stranded vessels." Hence one may 
study the anatomy of the fifty-four towers which Wren was 
obliged to build after the Fire in a space of time which 
would only have properly sufficed for the construction of 
four. The same characteristics, more and more painfully 
diluted, but always slightly varied, occur in each. Bow 
Church, St. Magnus, St. Bride, and St. Vedast are 
the best. 

The Great Bell of St. FauFs (of 17 1 6), which hangs in the 
south tower, bears the inscription " Richard Phelps made 
me, 1 7 16." It only tolls on the deaths and funerals of the 
royal family, of Bishops of London, Deans of St. Paul's, and 
Lord Mayors who die in their mayoralty. 



ST. PAUL'S CROSS, 151 

** There is an erroneous notion that most of its metal was derived 
from the remelting of ' Great Tom of Westminster.' This bell, so re- 
plete with venerable associations, was given or sold by William III. to 
the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul's, and recast by one Wightman. It 
was speedily broken in consequence of the cathedral authorities per- 
mitting visitors to strike it, on payment of a fee, with an iron hammer, 
and Phelps was employed by Sir Christopher Wren to make its fine- 
toned successor. It was agreed, however, that he should not remove 
the old bell till he delivered the new, and thus there is not a single 
ounce of ' Great Tom ' in the mass." — Quarterly Review^ CXC, 

Lily the grammarian, who died of the Plague, is buried 
on the north side of the Churchyard^ opposite the school to 
whose celebrity he so much contributed. Father Garnet 
was executed in St. Paul's Churchyard, May 3, 1606, on 
an accusation of having shared in the conspiracy of the 
Gunpowder Plot, and died with the protest of innocence 
on his lips. Not forty years ago a large elm at the north- 
east corner of the graveyard marked the site of St. Paul's 
Cross, a canopied cross standing on stone steps, whence 
open-air sennons, denounced and ridiculed when they 
were re-introduced by Wesley and Whitefield, were preached 
every Sunday afternoon till the time of the Common- 
wealth. 

" Paul's Cross was the pulpit not only of the cathedral ; it might 
almost be said, as preaching became more popular, and began more 
and more to rule the public mind, to have become that of the Church 
of England. The most distinguished ecclesiastics, especially from the 
Universities, were summoned to preach before the Court (for the Court 
sometimes attended) and the City of London. Nobles vied with each 
other in giving hospitality to those strangers. The Mayor and 
Aldermen were required (tb^s -vas at a later period) to provide sweet 
and convenient lodgings, for them, with fire, candles, and all other 
necessaries. Excepting the king and his retinue, who had a covered 
gallery, the congregation, even the Mayor and Aldermen, stood in 
the open air. 

"Paul's Cross was not only the great scene for the display of 



1^2 WALKS IN LONDON. 

eloquence by distinguished preachers ; it was that of many public acts, 
some relating to ecclesiastical affairs, some of mingled cast, some simply 
political. Here Papal Bulls were promulgated; here excommu. ica- 
tions were thundered out ; here sinners of high position did penance ; 
here heretics knelt and read their recantations, or, if obstinate, were 
marched off to Smithfield. Paul's Cross was never darkened by the 
smoke of human sacrifice. Here miserable men, and women suspected 
of witchcraft, confessed their wicked dealings ; here great impostures 
were exposed, and strange frauds unveiled in the face of day. 

" Here too occasionally Royal Edicts were published ; here addresses 
were made on matters of state to the thronging multitudes supposed to 
represent the metropolis; here kings were proclaimed, probably 
traitors denounced." — Dean Miltnan. 

It was at St. Paul's Cross that Jane Shore did public 
penance, as is touchingly described by Holinshed — 

"In hir penance she went, in countenance and pase demure, so 
womanlie, that albeit she were out of aU araie, save hir kertle onlie, yet 
went she so faire and lovelie, namelie, while the wondering of the 
people cast a comelie rud in hir cheeks (of which she before had most 
misse), that hir great shame wan hir much praise among those that 
were more amorous of hir bodie, than curious of hir soule." 

Here Dr. Shaw suggested the kingship of Richard III. 
with fatal consequences to himself. Here likewise Tindall's 
translation of the Bible was publicly burnt, by order 
of Bishop Stokesley, and here the Pope's sentence on 
Martin Luther was pronounced in a sermon by Bishop Fisher 
in the presence of Wolsey, who himself here exposed the 
imposture of the rood of Boxley. Hence Ridley denounced 
both the royal sisters, Mary and Elizabeth, as bastards, and 
then "stole away to Cambridge to throw himself at the 
feet of the triumphant Mary." Elizabeth, immediately on 
her accession, showed her appreciation of the importance of 
" St. Paul's Cross," for one of her first acts was to select a 
safe preacher for the next Sunday's sermon, " that no 



ST. PAUVS SCHOOL, 153 

occasion might be given to stir any dispute touching the 
governance of the realm." Here the great queen listened 
to the thanksgiving sermon of Dr. Pierce, Bishop of 
Salisbury (Nov. 24, 1588), for the defeat of the Armada. 
James I. was among those who sate beneath the preachers 
at Paul's Cross, and Charles I. heard a sermon here on the 
occasion of the birth of his son, afterwards Charles II. 
The eminent preachers selected for the public sermons 
were entertained by the Mayor and Corporation at a kind 
of inn, called " the Shunamite's House." An order of 
Parliament caused the destruction of "Paules Cross" in 
1643. 

An ugly Grecian portico immediately behind the cathedral 
marks St. Paul's School, founded in 15 14 by Dean Colet, 
the friend of Erasmus, for 153 poor children — a number 
chosen as being that of the fishes taken by St. Peter. Colet 
dedicated his foundation to the Child Jesus, so that, says 
Strype, " the true name of this school is Jesus' School, 
rather than Paul's School ; but the saint hath robbed his 
Master of his title." Erasmus has left an interesting descrip- 
tion of Dean Colet's school, and relates how over the 
master's chair was a figure of the Child Jesus " of excellent 
work, in the act of teaching, whom all the assembly, both 
at coming in and going out of school, salute with a short 
hymn."* 

* " O my most sweet Lord Jesus, who, whilst as yet a child in the twelfth year 
of thine age, didst so discourse with the doctors in the temple at Jerusalem as 
that they all marvelled with amazement at thy super-excellent wisdom ; I beseech 
thee that— in this thy school, by the tutors and patrons whereof I am daily taught 
in letters and instruction,— I may be enabled chiefly to know thee, O Jesus, who 
art the only true wisdom ; and afterwards to have knowledge both to worship and 
to imitate thee ; and also in this brief life so to walk in the way of thy doctrine, 
following in thy footsteps, that, as thou hast attained mete glory, I also, 
departing out of this life, happily may attain to some part thereof Amen."— 
Knighfs "l.ife of Colet. y xi. 446. 



154 WALKS IN LONDON, 

Over the figure was the inscription — 

" Discite me primum, pueri, atque efHngite pniis 
Moribus, iude pias addite literulas." * 

John Milton was educated at St. Paul's School from his 
eleventh to his sixteenth year. The existing buildings are 
quite modern, but the founder is commemorated over the 
doors of the school by his motto, " Disce aut discede," and 
at the end of the schoolroom in a bust by Bacon, 

" It may seem false Latin that this Colet, being Dean of Paul's, the 
school dedicated to St. Paul, and distanced but the breadth of a street 
from St. Paul's Chmch, should not intrust it to the inspection of his 
successors, the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul's, but committed it to 
the care of the Company of Mercers for the managing thereof. But 
Erasmus rendereth a good reason from the mouth and minde of Colet 
himself, who had found by experience many laymen as conscientious as 
clergymen in discharging this trust in this Idnde ; conceiving also that a 
whole company was not so easy to be bowed to corruption as any single 
person, how eminent and publick soever. For my own part, I behold 
Colet's act herein as not only prudential, but something prophetical, as 
foreseeing the ruin of church-lands, and fearing that this his school, if 
made an ecclesiastical appendage, might in the fall of church-lands get 
a bruise, if not lose a limb thereby." — Fuller's Church History^ 

It was for Dean Colet's School that Lily composed the 
Latin verses called from their first words, " Propria quae 
maribus," containing rules for distinguishing the genders of 
nouns. In 1877 the Mercers' Company purchased sixteen 
acres of ground in Hammersmith, whither it is intended to 
remove the school. 

It was in front of the school in St. Paul's Churchyard 
that George Jefi'reys, the famous judge, then a St. Paul's 
schoolboy, after watching the judges go to dine with the 

• " Children learn first to form pure minds by me, 
Then add fair learning to your piety." 

Milnum^ 



THE HERALD'S COLLEGE, 155 

Lord Mayor, astonished his father, who was about to bind 
him apprentice to a mercer, by swearing that he too would 
one day be the guest of the Mayor, and would die Lord 
Chancellor — so that the Lord Mayor's coach had the Bloody 
Assizes to answer for. 

Near St. Paul's School stood, before the Fire, a belfry- 
tower containing the famous " Jesus Bells," won at dice by 
Sir Giles Partridge from Henry VIIL 

South of St. Paul's Churchyard is the Deanery ^ and close 
beside is St. Paul's Choristers School built by Dean Church, 
1874. This is the especial district of ecclesiastical law. 
Doctors' Commons, so called from the Doctors of Civil Law 
here living and " commoning " together in a collegiate man- 
ner. Several of its Courts have been removed to Somerset 
House, but the Court of Faculties and Dispensations, by which 
marriage licences are granted, and the Co7isistory Court of 
the Bishop of London are still held here. At the foot of 
Bennet's Hill, facing Queen Victoria Street, is the Ha-ald^s 
College^ a red brick building surrounding three sides of a 
court, with a well-designed outer staircase. It occupies the 
site of Derby House, built by Thomas, that first Earl of 
Derby who married the Countess of Richmond, mother of 
Henry VH. Here, where " the records of the blood of all 
the families in the kingdom " are kept, the sword, dagger, 
and turquoise ring of James IV. of Scotland, slain at Flod- 
den Field, are preserved. In the chambers of the Herald's 
College preside three kings, namely, — 

Garter Kin g-at- Arms, established by Henry V. for the dignity of 
the Order of the Garter. He corrects all arms usurped or borne un- 
justly, and has the power of granting arms to deserving persons, &c. 

Clarencieux King at Arms, who takes his name from the Duke of 
Clarence, 3rd son of Edward III. He has the care of the arms, and all 



IS6 WALKS IN LONDON. 

questions of descent regarding families south of the Humber, not under 
the discretion of the Garter. 

Norroy (North Roy), who has the same jurisdiction north of the 
Huraber as Clarencieux in the south. 

"As for nobihty in particular persons, it is a reverend thing to see 
an antient castle or building not in decay ; or to see a fair timber tree 
sound and perfect ; how much more to behold an antient noble family, 
which hath stood against the waves and weatliers of time : for new 
nobihty is but the act of power ; but antient nobihty is the act of time.'* 
— Lord Bacon, 

What is now called St. PatiVs Churchyard was sur- 
rounded before the Fire by shops of booksellers, who 
have since betaken themselves to Paternoster Row, Ave- 
Maria Lane, and Amen Corner, on the north of the Church, 
so called, says Stow, " because of stationers or text-writers 
that dwelt there, who wrote and sold all sorts of books then 
in use, namely, A B C, with the Pater-noster, Ave, Creed, 
Graces, &c." At the corner of Cheapside and Paternoster 
Row was, till 1848, the " Chapter Cofiee House," of much 
literary celebrity, where authors and booksellers of the last 
century were greatly wont to congregate. Here also the 
club of the " Wittenagemot " was held, which was much 
frequented by physicians of the last century. In the room 
which bore the name of the club, the famous Dr. Buchan, 
author of " Domestic Medicine," used to see his patients, a 
man " of venerable aspect, neat in his dress, his hair tied 
behind with a large black ribbon, and a gold-headed cane 
in his hand, realising the idea of an Esculapian dignitary." 
It was at the Chapter Coffee House that the famous 
"Threepenny Curates " could be hired for two pence and 
a cup of coffee to hold service anywhere within the 
boundary. 

Paiernoster Row (so called from the rosary makers ?) is 



PATERNOSTER ROW, 



157 



still the booksellers' paradise. Its entrance is guarded by 
the establisliments of Messrs. Blackwood and Nelson, and a 
mighty bust of Aldus presides over the narrow busy pave- 
ment, while every window at the sides is filled with books, 
chiefly Bibles, Prayer-Books, and religious tracts. The 




The Boy of Panyer Alley. 



Church of St. Michael le Quern, Paternoster Row, de- 
stroyed in the Fire, derived its name from the use in the 
adjacent market of the handmill of Scripture : it continued 
to be employed for the grinding of malt till the time of the 
Commonwealth. John Leland, the antiquary, was buried 
in this church. 



158 WALKS IN LONDON, 

Pa7iyer Alley ^ leading into Newgate Street, being close to 

the Corn-market, marks the residence of the "Panyers," 

makers of bakers' baskets, in the fourteenth century. Here, 

built in the wall, is a stone witti a relief of a boy sitting on a 

panyer, inscribed — 

" When ye have sovght 
The Citty round 
Yet still ths is 

The hihest ground. 

August the 27, 1688." 

Dolly's Chop House, close to this (so called from an old 
cook of the tavern, whose portrait was painted by Gains- 
borough), has a curious old coffee-room of Queen Anne's 
time. The head of that queen painted on a window of the 
tavern has given a name to Queen's Head Passage. 

"There is a passage leading from Paternoster Row to St. Paul's 
Churchyard. It is a slit, through which the cathedral is seen more 
grandly than from any other point I can caU to mind. It would make 
a fine dreamy picture, as we saw it one moonlight night, with some 
belated creatures resting against the walls in the foreground — mere 
spots set against the base of Wren's mighty work, that, through the 
narrow opening, seemed to have its cross set against the sky." — Preface 
to DorPs London. 

At the bottom of Paternoster Row leads into Warwick 
Lane, where till lately stood (on the west of the Lane) the 
College of Physicians, whither Dryden's body was brought 
by Dr. Garth, to whom it was indebted for suitable burial, 
where he was honoured by " a solemn performance of 
music,"* and whence (May 13, 1700) it was followed by 
more than a hundred coaches to Westminster. The build- 
ings of the College (which originally met at Linacre's 
house in Knightrider Street) were erected by Wren (1674), 

* See The London S^. 



WARWICK LANE, 159 

and were conspicuous from their done, surmounted by a 
golden ball. 

" A golden globe, placed high with artfiil skill, 
Seems to the distant sight a gilded pUl." 

Garth. The Dispensary. 

The original name of this street was Eldenesse Lane ; it 
derives its present appellation from the inn or palace of the 
Earls of Warwick. This Warwick Inn was in the posses- 
sion of Cecily Duchess of Warwick c. 1450. Eight years 
later, when the greater estates of the realm were called up 
to London, Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, the " King- 
maker," " came with six hundred men, all in red jackets, 
embroidered with ragged staves before and behind, and was 
lodged in Warwick Lane ; in whose house there was often 
six oxen eaten at a breakfast, and every tavern was full of 
his meat ; for he that had any acquaintance in that house 
might have there so much of sodden or roast meat as he 
could pick and carry on a long dagger." 

Midway down the Lane on the east side is the Bell Inn 
(rebuilt), where (1684) the holy Archbishop Leigh ton died 
peacefully in his sleep, thereby fulfilling his often expressed 
desire that he might not trouble his friends in his death. 

" He used often to say, that, if he were to choose a place to die in, 
it should be an inn ; it looking like a pilgrim's going home, to whom 
this world was all as an inn, and who was weary of the noise and con- 
fusion in it. He added that the officious tenderness and care of friends 
was an entanglement to a dying man ; and that the unconcerned 
attendance of those that could be procured in such a place would give 
less disturbance. And he obtained what he desired ; for he died at 
the Bell Inn, in Warwick Lane." — Burnefs Own Times. 

Opposite the Bell, closing an alley on the left, stood the 
Oxford Arms, one of the most curious old hostelries in 



i6o WALKS IN LONDON. 

England, demolished in 1877. It belonged to the Dean 
and Chapter of St. Paul's, and was restored immediately 
after the Great Fire, on the exact plan of an older 
inn on the site, which was then destroyed. In the 
London Gazette of March, 1672-3, we find the words — 

'* These are to notify that Edward Bartlett, Oxford Carrier, has 
removed his inn in London from the Swan, in Holbom Bridge, to the 
Oxford Arms in Warwick Lane, where he did inn before the Fire ; his 
coaches and waggons going forth on their usual days, Mondays, 
Wednesdays, and Fridays. He hath also a hearse, with all things 
convenient to carry a corpse to the burial." 

The leases of the property forbade the closing of a door 
leading to the houses of the residentiary Canons of St. 
Paul's, by which Roman Catholics who frequented the Inn 
escaped during the riots of 1780. The great court of 
the Inn, constantly crowded with waggons and filled with 
people, horses, donkeys, dogs, geese — life of every kind — 
presented a series of Teniers pictures in its double tiers of 
blackened, balustraded, open galleries, with figures hanging 
over them, with clothes of every form and hue suspended 
from pillar to pillar, and with outside staircases, where 
children sate to chatter and play in the shadow of the 
immensely broad eaves which supported the steep red roofs. 
Amongst those who lived here in former days was John 
Roberts the bookseller, and from hence he sent forth his 
squibs and libels on Pope. On the wall of the last house 
(left), where Warwick Lane enters Newgate Street, Warwick 
the King-maker is commemorated in a very curious relief, 
jf 1668, of an armed knight with shield and sword. 

The neighbourhood of Newgate has always been " the 
Butchers' Quarter." St. Nicholas's Shambles originally 



NEWGATE STREET. 



I6l 



stood here, which took their name from the old Church of 
St. Nicholas, Bishop of Myra, destroyed at the Dissolution, 
and till the Great Fire the market continued to be held in 
the middle of the street in open stalls, which were a great 
nuisance to the neighbourhood, and gave the name of 
" Stinking Lane " to the present King Edward Street, from 
the filth which they accumulated. After the Fire a market- 
house was erected in the open space between Newgate 
Street and Paternoster Row, where the ivy-covered houses of 
the Prebends of St. Paul's, commemorated in Ivy Lane,* 




Guy, Earl of Warwick. 



Stood amidst orchards, whose apples were a great tempta- 
tion to London street-boys, and frequently proved fatal to 
them, as is shown by the coroners' inquests of five centuries 
ago. Newgate Market continued to be the principal meat- 
market of London till the recent erection of that in Smith- 
field— 

" Shall the large mutton smoke upon your boards ! 
Such Newgate's copious market best affords." 

Gay. Trivia, bk. ii. 



VOL. 



Stow. 
M 



162 WALKS IN LONDON. 

A curious relic in Newgate Street, which has lately dis- 
appeared, was the sculpture over the entrance to Bull Head 
Court, representing William Evans, the giant porter of 
Charles I., with Sir Jeffrey Hudson, the dwarf of Henrietta 
Maria, who could travel in his pocket — Evans was seven 
feet six inches in height, Hudson three feet nine inches ; 
but the dwarf was so fiery that he killed Mr. Crofts, who 
ventured to laugh at him, in a duel, and he commanded a 
troop of horse in the king's service. 

On the north side of Newgate Street, through an open 
screen, are seen some of the modern buildings of Christ^ s 
Hospital, erected in 1825 by James Shaw, the architect 
of St. Dunstan's in the West. The foundation of Christ's 
Hospital was one of the last acts of Edward VI., who died 
ten days after. He was so touched by an affecting sermon 
which he heard from Bishop Ridley on June 26, 1553, upon 
the duty of providing for the sick and needy, that after the 
service was over he sent for the bishop, thanked him for his 
advice, and, after inquiring what class of persons was in 
most need of being benefited, founded a hospital for des- 
titute and fatherless children. The buildings, which had 
belonged to the Grey Friars, and which were set apart for 
this purpose, had been given to the City of London by 
Henry VIH. at the Dissolution. 

The monastery of Grey Friars, which was one of the most 
important religious houses in London, was founded by the 
first Franciscans who came over to England in the reign of 
Henry III. Its buildings were raised by the charity of 
various pious benefactors, and its glorious church was given 
by Margaret, second wife of Edward I. It became a 
favourite burial-place of the queens of England, as well as 



GREY FRIARS 163 

the usual place of interment for the foreign attendants of 
the Plantagenet Queens Consort. Here were the tombs 
of Beatrix, Duchess of Brittany, second daughter of 
Henry III., who died when she came over to the corona- 
tion of Edward I. in 1272 ; of the generous Queen Margaret, 
— "good withouten lacke" — second wife and widow of 
Edward I.,* and of her niece the wicked Queen Isabella, 
wife of Edward II. Joan of the Tower, wife of David 
Brace, King of Scotland, and second daughter of 
Edward II., driven to seek a refuge in England by the in- 
fidelities of her husband, died in the arms of her sister-in- 
law Queen Philippa, in 1362, and was buried by her mother's 
side. Near her was laid Isabel, Countess of Bedford, the 
eldest and favourite daughter of Edward III., who was 
separated from her husband Ingelram de Coucy by the 
wars between France and England. Other tombs were 
those of Baron Fitzwarren and his wife Isabel, some- 
time Queen of Pvlan ; Sir Robert TresiHan, Chief Justice of 
England, executed at Tyburn, 1308; Roger Mortimer, 
Earl of March, beheaded 1329 ; John Philpot, Lord Mayor, 
1384; Sir Nicholas Brember, Lord Mayor, 1386; John, 
Due de Bourbon, taken prisoner at Agincourt, who died after 
a captivity of eighteen years, 1433 ; and Thomas Burdett, 
1477, who was beheaded for having too vigorously lamented 
over a favourite buck of his, which had been killed by 
Edward IV. Here also (1665) was buried one who 
" possessed every advantage v-hich nature and art and an 
excellent education could give,"t the accomplished Sir 
Kenelm Digby, who was laid in the magnificent tomb 

• The heart of his mother, Queen Eleanor, who died at Ambresbury, was also 
preserved here. 
+ Clarendon. 



I64 WALKS IN LONDON. 

where he had buried his wayward wife, the beautiful Venetia 
Stanley,*^' lamented in the verses of Ben Jonson. 

All the monuments in Grey Friars, many of them of 
marble and alabaster, and extremely magnificent, were sold 
for ;£^o by Sir Martin Bowes, goldsmith and alderman, a 
destruction which signifies little now, as they would all have 
perished otherwise in the Great Fire. Even the name of 
Grey Friars became extinct when Christ's Hospital was 
founded, and nothing remains of the monastery except some 
low brick arches of the western cloister on the left of the 
entrance. 

The Hospital is approached from Newgate Street by a 
brick gate-way surmounted by a statue of Edward VI. in 
his robes. The courts, used as playgrounds by the boys, 
are handsome and spacious. There are 685 boys lodged 
and boarded in the surrounding buildings ; and belonging to 
the same foundation is the preparatory school of 500 boys 
and the school of 60 or 70 girls at Hertford. The boys 
sleep in dormitories crowded with little beds, and wash in 
lavatories. A line in their swimming-bath marks the junc- 
tion of three parishes — Christ Church, St. Sepulchre's, and 
St. Bartholomew's. 

London smoke has already given a venerable aspect to the 
noble Ha/l, 187 feet in length, and the long oak tables are 
really old. In the centre of the side wall is a pulpit whence 
graces are read, and the lessons of the day in the morning. 
The walls are decorated beyond the pulpit by the arms of 
the Presidents, below the pulpit by the arms of the Trea- 
surers, beginning with those of Grafion, Treasurer in 1554, 
the yeai alter the foundation. The raised seats at the end 

• Aubrey. 



CHRIST* S HOSPITAL, 165 

ofthe hall are intended for spectators admitted by ticket to 
witness the " Public Suppings " at 7 p.m. on the six Thurs- 
days in Lent, a very curious sight. Above is an old picture 
of Edward VI. giving a charter to the Hospital. The 
other pictures include — 

Verrio. An immense and very curious representation of the scholars 
of Christ Hospital, both boys and girls, bringing their drawings to be 
examined by James II. in the midst of his court. Charles II. was 
originally introduced, but as he died before the picture was finished, 
his figure was altered to that of his brother. The custom pourtrayed 
here is still kept up, and every year the scholars go to the Queen at 
Buckingham Palace. Pennant describes this " as the largest picture I 
ever saw." 

Sir F. Grant. Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. 

y. Singleton Copley. The Adventure of Brook Watson, a Christ 
Chxirch scholar, in escaping from a shark. 

The Library was founded by the famous Sir Richard 
Whittington, who flourished in the time of Richard II. and 
Henry IV., and, in the latter reign, was three times Lord 
Mayor. 

The boys educated at Christ's Hospital are generally 
called " Blue-Coat Boys," from their dress, which recalls 
that of the citizens of the time of Edward VI., and consists 
of a blue gown, red leathern girdle, yellow stockings, and 
bands. The two first classes of the school are called 
" Grecians " and " Deputy Grecians.'' Among eminent 
Blue-Coat boys were Bishop Stillingfleet, Camden the Anti- 
quary, Campion the Jesuit, Mitchell the translator of 
Aristophanes, Charles Lamb, Bishop Middleton, Jeremiah 
Markland, Richardson the novelist, and above all Samuel 
Taylor Coleridge, who was educated here under James 
Boyer and who said, when he heard of his head-master's 
death, that " it was fortunate the cherubs who took him to 



i66 WALKS IN LONDON. 

heaven were nothing but faces and wings, or he would 
infallibly have flogged them by the way." 

" Christ's Hospital is an institution to keep those who have yet held 
up their heads in the world from sinking ; to keep alive the spirit of a 
decent household, when poverty was in danger of crushing it ; to 
assist those who are the most willing, but not always the most able, 
to assist themselves ; to separate a child from his family for a season, 
in order to render him back hereafter, with feelings and habits more 
congenial to it, than he could ever have attained by remainin^j at home 
in the bosom of it. It is a preserving and renovating pi nciple, an 
antidote for the rt: angusta domi, when it presses, as it always does, 
most heavily tpon the most ingenuous natures." — Charles Lamb. 

In Christ Church Passage was "Pontack's," the first 
Restaurant of a better class opened in London (c. 1689) 
where a dinner could be ordered. 

Where Newgate Street (now chiefly devoted to butchers) 
is crossed by Giltspur Street and the Old Bailey stood the 
New Gate, one of the five principal gates of the City, which 
was also celebrated as a prison. Its first story, over the 
arch, was, according to custom, " common to all prisoners, 
to walk in and beg out of." EUwood the Quaker narrates 
the horrors of the nights in the gate-prison where all were 
crowded into one room, and " the breath and steam which 
came from so many bodies, of different ages, conditions, 
and constitutions, packed up so close together, was 
sufficient to cause sickness." In fact, in the Plague, fifty- 
two persons died over Newgate alone. 

The gate-house was the origin of the existing Newgate 
PrisoHy which now looms, grim and grimy, at the end of 
Holborn Viaduct, and whose very name is fraught with 
reminiscences of Claude Duval, Dick Turpin, Jack Shep- 
pard, Greenacre, Courvoisier, Franz Miiller, and others 
celebrated in the annals of crime. The Prison was re 



NEWGATE, 167 

built, 1770 — 80, under George Dance, architect of the 
Mansion House. 

** His chef-d'oeuvre was the design for Newgate, which, though 
only a prison, and pretending to be nothing else, is still one of the 
best public buildings in the metropolis. 

"It attained this eminence by a process which amounts as much to 
a discovery on the part of its architect as Columbus's celebrated inven- 
tion of making an egg stand on its end — by his simply setting his mind 
to think of the purpose to which his building was to be appropriated. 
There is nothing in it but two great windowless blocks, each ninety 
feet square, and between them a very common-place gaoler's residence, 
five windows wide, and five stories high, and two simple entrances. 
With these slight materials, he has made up a facade two hundred 
and ninety-seven feet in extent, and satisfied every requisite of good 
architecture. ' ' — Fergusson . 

On the south front are allegorical statues of Concord, 
Mercy, Justice, Truth, Peace, and Plenty — interesting as 
having once adorned the New Gate, which also bore a now 
lost statue of Sir R. Whittington with the renowned cat of 
his story. Those who have been imprisoned here include 
Sackville and Wither the poets ; Penn, for street preach- 
ing ; De Foe, for publishing his Shortest Way with 
Dissenters ; Jack Sheppard, who was painted here by Sir 
James Thornhill ; and Dr. Dodd, who preached his' own 
funeral sermon in the chapel (on Acts xv. 23) before he 
was hanged for forgery in 1777. Lord George Gordon was 
imprisoned in Newgate for a libel on the Queen of France, 
and died within its walls of the gaol distemper. In the 
chapel is a " condemned bench," only used for the prisoners 
under sentence of death. There are those still living who 
remember as many as twenty-one prisoners (when men 
were hung for stealing a handkerchief) sitting on the con- 
demned bench at once. Since executions have ceased to be 



1 68 WALKS IN LONDON. 

carried out at Tyburn, they have taken place here: one 
of the most important has been that of Bellingham, for the 
murder of Mr. Percival. The late amelioration in the con- 
dition of prisoners in Newgate is in great measure due to the 
exertions of Mrs. Fry, who has left a terrible account of their 
state even in 1838. 

Close by is the Old Bailey Sessions House^ for the trial of 
prisoners within twelve miles of St. Paul's. Over it is a 
dining-room, where the judges dine when business is over, 
whence the line — 

" And wretches hang that jurymen may dine." 

The space between Newgate and the Old Bailey is called 
the Press Yard, from having been the scene of the horrible 
punishment of pressing to death for " standing mute " when 
arraigned for treason. Persons sentenced to this peine forte 
et dure were stretched naked on the floor of a dark room, 
and were fed with just sufficient bread and water to sustain 
life, a heavy weight of iron being laid upon the body, and 
increased till the victim either answered or died. In 1659 
Major Strangways was thus pressed to death for refusing to 
plead, when accused of the murder of John Fussel ; and the 
punishment existed as late as 1770, being voluntarily under- 
gone by some offenders as the only means of preserving 
their estates to their children. 

Jonathan Wild, infamous even in the annals of crime, 
lived at No. 68, the second house south of Ship Court in 
the Old Bailey. He used to receive stolen goods and 
restore them to their owners for a consideration, the larger 
share of which he appropriated. If thieves opposed his 
rapacity, he, knowing all their secrets, was able to bring 



ST. SEPULCHRE'S, 169 

about their capture. At his trial he delivered to the judge 
a list of thirty-five robbers, twenty-two housebreakers, and 
ten returned convicts, whom he was proud of having been 
instrumental in hanging. He was hung himself on May 24, 
1725. Green Anchor Court in the Old Bailey (now destroyed) 
was the miserable residence of Oliver Goldsmith in 1788. 

Opposite Newgate is St. Sepulchres Church, formerly 
"Saint Pulchre's," chiefly modern, but with a remarkable 
porch which has a beautiful fan-tracery roof. It is much to 
be lamented that, in a recent " restoration," the silly church- 
wardens have substituted an oriel window for the niche over 
the entrance, containing the statue of Sir John Popham, 
Chancellor of Normandy and Treasurer of the King's 
household, who was buried in the cloister of the Charter- 
house in the time of Edward IV. ; this statue was one of 
the landmarks of the City.* The perpendicular tower is 
very handsome, but spoilt by its heavy pinnacles. 

"Unreasonable people are as hard to reconcile as the vanes of St. 
Sepulchre's tower, which never looked all four upon one part of the 
hea ve ns . ' ' — Howell. 

In the old church the unfortunate Thomas Fienes, Lord 
Dacreof the South, was buried, who was executed at Tyburn, 
June 29, 1544, for accidentally killing John Busbrig, a 
keeper, in a poaching fray in Laughton Park. The in- 
terior of the present building is Georgian commonplace. 
Many, however, are the Americans who visit it, to see a 
grey grave-stone "in the church choir, on the south side 
thereof," with an almost obliterated epitaph, which began — 

" Here lies one conquer'd that hath conquer'd kings ! " 
for it covers the remains of Captain John Smitli (1579 — 

* See The Builder, Aug. 21, 1875. 



lyo WALKS IN LONDON, 

1631), "sometime Governour of Virginia and Admirall of 
New England," and author of many works upon the History 
of Virginia. The three Turks' Heads which are still visible 
on his shield of arms were granted by Sigismund, Duke of 
Transylvania, in honour of his having, in three single com- 
bats, overcome three Turks and cut off their heads, in the 
wars of Hungary in 1602. A ballad entitled " The Honour 
of a London Prentice, being an account of his matchless 
manhopd and brave adventures done in Turkey, and by 
what means he married the king's daughter," tells how 
Smith killed one of these Turks by a box on the ear, and 
how he tore out the tongue of a lion which came to devour 
him! 

"Wherever upon this continent (of America) the English language is 
spoken, his deeds should be recounted and his memory hallowed. . . . 
Poetry has imagined nothing more stirring and romantic than his lif? 
and adventures, and History upon her ample page has recorded few 
more honourable and spotless names." — G. S. Hilliard, Life ofCapain 
jfohn Smith. 

"I made acquaintance with brave Captain Smith as a boy, in my 
grandfather's library at home, where I remember how I would sit at 
the good man's knees, with my favourite volume on my own, spelling 
out the exploits of our Virginian hero. I loved to read of Smith's 
travels, sufferings, captivities, escapes, not only in America, but 
Europe." — Thackeray's " Virginians.''^ 

John Rogers, the Smithfield martyr, was vicar of St. 
Sepulchre's, having previously been chaplain to the mer- 
chant-adventurers of Antwerp, where he became the friend 
of Tyndale, the translator of the Bible, whose work was 
finally carried out by him after Tyndale's death. 

" There is no doubt that the first complete English Bible came from 
Antwerp under his superintendence and auspices. It bore then, and 
still bears, the name of Matthews' Bible. Of Matthews, however, no 



ST. SEPULCHRE'S. 171 

trace has ever been discovered. He is altogether a myth, and there is 
every reason for believing that the untraceable Matthews was John 
Rogers. If so, Rogers was not only the proto-martyr of the EngHsh 
Church, but, with due respect for Tyndale, the proto-martyr of the 
English Bible, which first came whole and complete from his hands. 
The fact rests on what appears to be the irrefragable testimony of his 
enemies. On his trial Rogers was arraigned as John Rogers ahas 
Matthews. '^ — Dean Milman, 

It is the bell of St. Sepulchre's which is tolled when 
prisoners in Newgate are executed, and by an old custom a 
nosegay was presented at this church to every prisoner who 
was on his way to Tyburn. The church clock still regulates 
the hour of executions, and the church bellman used to go 
under the walls of Newgate on the night before an execu- 
tion and ring his bell and recite — 

** All you that in the condemned hold do lie, 
Prepare you, for to-morrow you shall die ; 
Watch all and pray, the horn- is drawing near, 
That you before the Almighty must appear ; 
Examine well yourselves, in time repent, 
That you may not to etemall flames be sent. 
And when St. Sepulchre's beU to-morrow tolls, 
The Lord above have mercy on your souls. 

Past twelve o'clock ! '* 



CHAPTER V. 

SMITHFIELD, CLERKENWELL, AND CANONBURY. 

BY St. Sepulchre's Church is the entrance of Giltspur 
Street, which was formerly a continuation of Knight- 
rider Street, and is named from the gilded spurs of the 
knights who rode that way to the tournaments. Near the 
end. of Giltspur Street on the left is the entrance of Cock 
Lane, of which we shall hear more when we reach Canon- 
bury, and hard by is Pie Corner^ where the Great Fire 
ended, which began in Pudding Lane. It is probably some 
association with these names which caused the inscription 
(now obliterated) beneath the commemorative figure of a 
very fat boy (once painted in colours), still existing against 
the wall of a public-house near the corner of Cock Lane : — 
" This boy is in memory put up of the late Fire of London, 
occasioned by the sin of gluttony, 1666." Pie Comer is 
frequently mentioned in the Plays of Ben Jonson, Mas- 
singer, and Shadwell. Hard by is Hosier Street, which 
was the especial centre for the hosiers in the fourteenth 
century. 

Giltspur Street leads into Smithfield or Smoothfield, 
around which many of London's most sacred memories art 
folded. But as its market is the first object which strikes 



SMITHFIELD MARKET, 173 

the eye, we are naturally drawn first to notice its great 
cattle-iair, which is not without its reminiscences, for it is 
celebrated by Shakspeare. Falstaff asks — 

" Where's Bardolph ? " 

and a page answers — 

" He's gone into Smithfield to buy your worship a horse." 

The first market — " Bartholomew Fair " — was established 
here by Rahere, king's jester to Henry I., by whom it was 
granted for the eve of St. Bartholomew, the day itself, and 
the day after. Ben Jonson's coarsest and wittiest comedy, 
Bartholomew Fair, lets us into many of its attendant abuses 
and customs, especially that of having booths at which 
pigs were dressed and sold — the " little tidy Bartholomew 
boar-pigs" of Shakspeare.* In the reign of Charles II. 
the duration of the Fair was extended from three to 
fourteen days, and Pepys " at Bartholemew Fayre, did find 
my Lady Castlemaine at a puppet-show, and the street full 
of people expecting her coming out." Gradually Smithfield 
grew to be the great and only cattle-market of London. 
As many as 210,757 cattle, and 1,518,510 sheep, were sold 
here annually; but the market was always inconvenient, 
and was a great nuisance to its neighbourhood. Dickens 
describes its miseries in his picture of Smithfield in " Oliver 
Twist "— 

"It was market morning, the ground was covered nearly ankle-deep 
with fillh and mire, and a thick steam perpetually rising from the 
reeking bodies of the cattle, and mingling with the fog which seemed 
to rest upon the chimney-tops, hung heavily above. All the pens in 
the centre of the large area, and as many temporary ones as could be 

• Henry IV., act ii. sc. iv. 



174 WALKS IN LONDON. 

crowded into the vacant space, were filled with sheep ; and tied up to 
posts by the gutter-side were long lines of oxen, three or four deep. 
Countrymen, butchers, drovers, hawkers, boys, thieves, idlers, and 
vagabonds of every low grade, were mingled together in a dense mass. 
The whistling of drovers, the barking of dogs, the bellowing and 
plunging of beasts, the bleating of sheep, and grunting and squeaking 
of pigs ; the cries of hawkers, the shouts, oaths, and quarrelling on all 
sides, the ringing of bells, and the roar of voices that issued from every 
public-house; the crowding, pushing, driving, beating, whooping, and 
yelling, the hideous and discordant din that resounded from every 
corner of the market, and the unwashed, unshaven, squalid, and dirty 
figures constantly running to and fro, and bursting in and out of the 
throng, rendered it a stunning and bewildering scene, which quite con- 
fused the senses." 

The market for living animals in Smithfield was abolished 
in 1852, when the new Meat-Market was built. It is a 
perfect forest of slaughtered calves, pigs, and sheep, hanging 
from cast-iron balustrades — actually 75 acres of meat. 

In the open space now occupied by the market tour- 
naments were formerly held. Edward III., forgetting his 
good queen Philippa, shocked London by parading her 
maid Alice Pierce as his mistress, as " the Lady of the 
Sun," at a public tournament in Smithfield in 1374. 
Another famous tournament was held here by Richard II., 
to celebrate the arrival of his child-queen Isabel. It 
was here that Wat Tyler was killed on the isth of June, 
1 38 1. His partisans had been everywhere successful, had 
broken into the Tower of London and beheaded the 
Archbishop of Canterbury, had broken into the Tower 
Royal and terrified the Fair Maid of Kent, had broken into 
and pillaged the palace of John of Gaunt at the Savoy. At 
length the young King Richard agreed to hear fully the 
demands of the Commons in Smithfield. They met, the 
King standing, says Stow, "towards the east near St. 



SMITHFIELD. 1 75 

Bartholomew's Priory, and the Commons towards the west 
in order of battle." The insolence of Wat Tyler's manner 
knew no bounds, he drew his dagger upon the knights whom 
the king sent to meet him ; finally, he approached the king 
and seized the bridle of his horse. It was then that the 
Lord Mayor, Walworth, plunged a dagger into his throat. It 
was a terrible crisis, and a massacre was only evaded by the 
presence of mind of Richard II., then only in his fifteenth 
year, who rode at once up to the rebels and said, " Why 
this clamour, my liege-men ? What are ye doing ? Will you 
kill your King ? Be not displeased for the death of a traitor 
and a scoundrel. I will be your captain and your leader : 
follow me into the fields, and I will grant you all you ask." 
The insurgents, captivated by his courage, at once allowed 
themselves to be led into Islington Fields, where they were 
quietly dispersed without difficulty, and Jack Straw, Wat 
Tyler's second in command, was afterwards hanged in 
Smithfield. 

The Elms in Smithfield " betwixt the horse-pool and the 
river of the Wels or Turnmill Brook " * was the place for 
public executions before it was removed to Tyburn in the 
reign of Henry IV. It was here that William Fitzosbert, 
surnamed the Longbeard, the first popular reformer, "was 
hanged and beheaded in (1196) the reign of Richard I. 
Here Sir William Wallace was executed on St. Bartholomew's 
Eve, 1305, being dragged by horses from the Tower, hung, 
and then quartered while he was still living. Here also 
Mortimer, the favourite of Queen Isabella the Fair, was 
hung by her eighteen-years-old son Edward III. Endless 
persons were burnt here for witchcraft ; two persons were 

* Stow, p. 142. 



176 WALKS IN LONDON. 

boiled alive here for poisoning;* but most of all is the name 
of Sraithfield connected with religious persecutions and in- 
tolerance—Catholics burning Protestants ; then, Protestants 
Catholics; then, Catholics Protestants again; those who 
had cruelly caused the sufferings of others often in their 
turn having to endure the same. Kings and princes were 
themselves sometimes present, and took a part at these 
horrible scenes ; thus in Sir. N. H. Nicholas' " Chronicle of 
London" (1089 to 1483) we read of the Prince of Wales 
assisting at the death of John Badby, who was burnt in a 
tun filled with fire, a ceremony of cruelty which was peculiar 
to him alone. 

"ThiN same yere there was a clerk that beleved nought on the sacra- 
ment of the auter, that is to saye, Godes body, which was danipned 
and brought into Smythfield to be burnt, and was bounde to a stake 
where as he schulde be burnt. And Henry, Prynce of Walys, thanne 
the kynge's eldest sone, consalled him for to forsake his heresye and hold 
the righte way of holy chirche. And the prior of seynt Bertelmewes 
in Smythfield biouf^hte the holy sacrament of Godes body, with xij 
torches lyght before, and in this wyse cam to the cursed heretyk : and 
it was asked hym how he beleved : and he ansuerde, that he beleved 
well that it was hallowed bred and nought Godes body ; and thanne 
was the tonne put over hym and fyre kyndled therein ; and whanne the 
wrecche felt the fyre he cryed mercy ; and anon the prynce comanded 
to take away the tonne and to quenche the fyre, the whiche was don 
anon at his comandement ; and thanne the prynce asked hym if he 
wolde forsake his heresye and taken hym to the faithe of holy chirche, 
whiche if he wolde dou, he schulde have hys lyf and good ynow to 
liven by; and the cursed shrew wolde nought, but contynued lo.ih in 
his heresye ; wherefore he was brent." 

Passing rapidly on to the reign of Henry VIII., we find 
in 1539, Forest, an Observant Friar, burnt for denying the 
King's supremacy, and Latimer, himself burnt in 1556, 

* The last was a woman ; the first, in 1531, was the cook of Fi?her, Bishop of 
Rochester, whom he was accused of trying to poison in his soup. 



SMITHFIELD MARTYRS. 177 

coolly preaching patience while the victim writhed and 
moaned in his death struggles. And soon afterwards we 
find Cranmer, also burnt himself in 1556, adjuring Edward 
VI. to burn Joan Butcher, the Maid of Kent, who was 
troubled with some scruples as to the Incarnation, and the 
amiable King replying in horror — *'What, my lord! Will 
ye have me send her quick to the devil, in her error ? " 
" So that Dr. Cranmer himself confessed, that he had 
never so much to do in all his life, as to cause the king to 
put to his hand, saying he would lay all the charge thereof 
upon Cranmer before God.*' 

Of the long line of sufferers for the Protestant faith, 
generally on the question of transubstantiation, in the reign 
of Henry VIII., perhaps the most remarkable was Sir 
William Askew's beautiful daughter Anne, whom Wriothes- 
ley, the Lord Chancellor, tortured with his own hands, and 
who lost the use of her feet by her extreme sufferings upon 
the rack to make her disclose the name of those court 
ladies of Queen Katherine Parr who shared her opinions. 
The account in Foxe of her death is too pictorial 
to omit. 

"The day of her execution (1546) being appointed, this good 
woman was brought into Smithfield in a chair, because she could not 
go on her feel, by means of her great torments. When she was 
brought unto the stake, she was tied by the middle with a chain, that 
held up her body. When all things were thus prepared to the fire, 
Dr. Shaxton,* who was then appointed to preach, began his sermon. 
Anne Askew, hearing and answering again unto him, when he said 
well, confirmed the same ; when he said amiss, 'There,' said she, *he 
misseth, and speaketh without the book.* 

" The sermon being finished, the martyrs, standing there tied at 
three several stakes ready to their martyrdom, began their prayers. 
The multitude and concourse of the people was exceeding ; the place 
* The renegade Bishop of Salisbury. 

VOL. I. N 



178 WALKS IN LONDON. 

where they stood being railed about to keep out the press. Upon the 
bench under St. Bartholomew's Church sate Wriothesley, chancellor 
of England ; the old Duke of Norfolk, the old Earl of Bedford, the 
Lord Mayor, with divers others. Before the fire should be set unto 
them, one of the bench, hearing that they had gunpowder about 
them, and being alarmed lest the faggots, by strength of the gun- 
powder, would come flying about their ears, began to be afraid ; but 
the Earl of Bedford, declaring unto him how the gunpowder was not 
laid under the faggots, but only about their bodies, to rid them out of 
their pain ; which having vent, there was no danger to them of the 
faggots, so diminished that fear. 

«' Then Wriothesley, lord chancellor, sent to Anne Askew letters, 
offering her the king's pardon if she would recant ; who, refusing 
once to look upon them, made this answer again, that she came not 
thither to deny her Lord and Master. Then were the letters likewise 
offered to the others, who, in like manner, following the constancy of 
the woman, denied not only to receive them, but also to look upon 
them. Whereupon the Lord Mayor, commanding fire to be put 
unto them, cried with a loud voice, * Fiat Justitia ! * 

"And thus the good Anne Askew, with these blessed martyrs, being 
troubled so many manner of ways, and having passed through so 
many torments, now ended the long course of her agonies, being 
compassed in with flames of fire." 

With the reign of Mary, who was educated in cruelty by 
her husband Philip, the executions for religion became 
ten times more frequent than before. The martyr-proces- 
sion was heralded (1555) by John Rogers, Vicar of St. 
Sepulchre's, who had been converted to the Protestant 
faith at Antwerp by conversations with William Tyndall 
and Miles Coverdale. 

" As he was led from his prison to Smithfield, his wife and nine 
children (another was about to be born) stood watching his ' triumph,' 
almost with joyousness. With that wife and children he had been 
refused a parting interview, by Gardiner first, when in prison, by 
Bonner afterwards just before his execution — for what had a conse- 
crated priest to do with wife and children ? John Rogers passed on, 
not as to his death, but to a wedding. This is not the language of an 
admiring martyrologist, or a zeal-deluded Protestant, but of Noailles, 
the Catholic French ambassador." — Dean Milman. 



SMITHFIELD MARTYRS. 179 

Rogers was offered a pardon if he would revoke his 
expressions about transubstantiation, but he answered, 
" That which I have preached will I seal with my blood ; at 
the day of Judgement it will be known whether I am a 
heretic," and, being bound to the stake, washed his hands 
in the flame, as one feeling no hurt, and so died bravely 
in sight of his own church-tower. " He was," says Foxe, 
" the proto-martyr of all the blessed company that suffered 
in Queen Mary's time, that gave the first adventure upon 
the fire." 

To those who study the story of the executions in Smith- 
field it will be striking, how, in the midst of a Catholic 
population, the English feeling of injustice towards the 
victims, and indignation at the cruelty of their persecutors, 
especially against Bonner, Bishop of London, always made 
the spectators sympathize with the sufferers, and only fear 
lest they should be induced by terror to recant at the last. 
Thus, when John Cardmaker, Prebendary of Wells, was 
brought to Smithfield (1555) with John Warne an uphol- 
sterer of Walbrook — 

" The people were in a marvellous dump and sadness thinking 
that Cardmaker would recant at the burning of Warne. But his 
prayers being ended, he rose up, put off his clothes unto his shirt, 
went with bold coxu-age to the stake, and kissed it sweetly : he took 
Warne by the hand, and comforted him heartily ; and so gave him- 
self to be also bound to the stake most gladly. The people seeing 
this so suddenly done, contrary to their fearful expectation, as men 
delivered out of a great doubt, cried out with joy, saying, ' God be 
praised ! the Lord strengthen thee, Cardmaker ; the Lord Jesus 
receive thy spirit ! ' " 

Amongst the most remarkable of the after sufferers was 
John Bradford, who died embracing the stake and comfort- 
ing his fellow sufferer ; and John Philpot, Archdeacon of 



i8o WALKS IN LONDON, 

Winchester, who knelt, like St. Andrew, at first sight of his 
stake. 

" And when he was come to the place of suffering, he kissed the 
stake, and said, ' Shall I disdain to suffer at this stake, seeing my 
Redeemer did not refuse to suffer a most vile death upon the cross 
for me?' And then with an obedient heart full meekly he said 
the io6th, the 107th, and the io8th Psalms. . . . Then they bound 
him to the stake, and set lire to that constant martyr." 

Two hundred and seventy-seven persons in all had been 
burnt here before, in the words of Fuller, " the hydropical 
humour which quenched the life of Mary extinguished also 
the fires of Smithfield." The only mcKiorial now existing 
of the sufferings for truth's sake which Smithfield witnessed 
is to be found in an inscribed stone in the outer wall of St. 
Bartholomew's Hospital, saying — " Within a few yards of 
this spot, John Rogers, John Bradford, John Philpot, 
servants of God, suffered death by fire for the faith of 
Christ, in the years, 1555, 1556, 1557." 

The part of Smithfield which is on the right as we enter 
it is girdled by St. Bartholomew's Hospital and the remains 
of St. Bartholomew's Priory, alike founded in the early part 
of the twelfth century by Rahere or Rayer — " a pleasant- 
witted gendeman," says Stow, " and therefore in his time 
called the king's minstrel." * On his way to Rome on a 
pilgrimage, he imagined in a vision that he was carried by 
a great beast having four feet and two wings to a very lofty 
place, whence he saw the entrance and the horrors of the 
bottomless pit. From this he was rescued by a majestic 
personage, who revealed himself as St. Bartholomew, and 
commanded him to build a church in his honour on a site 
which he indicated, bidding him be under no apprehensions 

* Stow, p. 140. 



ST. BARTHOLOMEW THE GREAT. i8i 

as to expense^ for he would supply the funds. Rahere, 
returning, obtained the royal sanction for his work, which 
was speedily assisted by miraculous agency, for a marvellous 
light was believed to shine on the roof of the church as it 
arose, the blind who visited it received their sight, cripples 
went away with their limbs restored, and, the hiding-place 
of a choral book stolen by a Jew was marvellously reveal e.!. 
Rahere died in 1143 leaving thirteen monks in his founda- 




The Gate of St. Bartholomew's. 

tion. The monastery was at one time one of the largest 
religious houses in London, its precincts extending as far as 
Aldersgate Street. But nothing is left now of the monastic 
buildings, though part of the cloisters existed within the 
memory of living persons. The Prior's house stood behind 
the church, between it and Red Lion Passage. 

Built up in the old houses facing the market — which 
look little altered since they were represented in the print 
in which the Lord Mayor and the old Dukes are sitting 



[82 



WALKS IN LONDON. 



beneath them in a kind of tent, watching the execution of 
Anne Askew — is an old Gothic gateway. It is an early 
English arch, with several rows of dogtooth ornament 
between its mouldings. Through its iron gate we look 
upon the blackened churchyard, with the ghastly tombs, of 




In St. Bartholomew's. 



St. Bartholomew the Great, with a brick tower of 1650. 
But to enter the church we have to seek the key in the 
neighbouring Cloth Fair.* 

Grand as St. Bartholomew's still is, it is only the choir of 

* The keys are kept at No. i, Church Passage, Cloth Fair. 



ST, BARTHOLOMEW THE GREAT, 183 

the monastic church, with the first bay of the nave and 
fragments of the transepts. The choir has a triforium 
and clerestory, and is entirely surrounded by an ambula- 
tory. The narrow stilted horseshoe arches of the apse are 
very curious. Of the arches which supported the tower, 
two are round, the others (towards the transepts) slightly 
pointed. The general effect of this interior is greatly 
enhanced by having its area kept open, with chairs in the 
place of pews, allowing the lines of the architecture and 
the bases of the pillars to be seen. 

"It is recorded * that three Greek travellers of noble family were 
present at the foundation, and foretold the future importance of the 
church. They were probably merchants from Byzantium, and it has 
been conjectured that they were consulted by the founder respecting 
the plan and architectural character of the church." — Rickntan, 

It is this monastic choir, as we now see it, which wit- 
nessed a strange scene when (1247) the Proven9al Arch- 
bishop Boniface, uncle of Henry III.'s queen, Ellinor, 
irritated at a want of deference on the part of the sub-prior, 
rushed upon him, slapped him in the face, tore his cope to 
fragments, and trampled it under foot, and finally, being 
himself in full armour under his vestments, pressed him 
against a pillar so violently as almost to kill him. A general 
scrimmage ensued between the monks and the attendants of 
the archbishop, and as the inhabitants of Smithfield poured 
in to the assistance of the former, Boniface was forced to fly 
to Lambeth, followed by shouts that he was a ruffian and 
cruel, unlearned and a stranger, and moreover that he had 
a wife ! 

The last prior was Fuller, previously prior of Walthani. 

* Mon. Ang. vol. vi. p. 294. 



1 84 



WALKS IN LONDON. 



Under his predecessor, Prior Bolton (1506 to 1532), a 
great deal of restoration was done, marked by the perpen- 
dicular work inserted on the old Norman building. Espe- 
cially noteworthy is the oriel called Prior Bolton's pew, 
projecting over the south side of the choir, where the prior 




Prior Bolton's Pew. 



sate during service, or whence the sacristan watched the 
altar. It is adorned with the rebus of its builder — a bolt 
through a ton.* There are similar oriels at Malmesbury 
and in Exeter Cathedral. 

* The well-known Inn in Fleet Street " the Bolt in Tun " took its name from the 
rebus of Prior Bolton. 



ST. BARTHOLOMEW THE GREAT. 



185 



On the north of the choir is the tomb erected in the 
fifteenth century to the founder, Rahere, with a beautifully 
groined canopy. At the foot of his sleeping figure stands 
a crowned angel, and on either side kneels a monk, with 
a Bible open at Isaiah li., and the words, " The Lord shall 



~^r^-ii''i=:']yil'f";';i ; 




Rahere's Tomb. 



comfort Zion : He will comfort all her waste places ; and 
He will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert hke 
the garden of the Lord ; joy and gladness shall be found 
therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody." 

On the north wallj also, is the monument of Robert 



i86 WALKS IN LONDON. 

Chamberlayne, ambassador, with two grand angels drawing 
the curtains of a tent within which he is kneeHng in armour. 
Behind, in the ambulatory, are two recesses ; that nearest 
the east end was part of the Wald^n Chapel, where 
Walden, Bishop of London, was buried. From a very 
humble sphere he rose to be Dean of York, Treasurer of 
Calais, Secretary to the King, and Treasurer of England. 
When Archbishop Arundel was banished by Richard II. 
Walden was made archbishop, but when Arundel returned 
with Henry IV., he was deposed, though he was generously 
made Bishop of London by his rival. 

"He may be compared," says Fuller, "to one so jaw-fallen with 
over long fasting, that he cannot eat meat when brought unto him ; 
and his spirits were so depressed with his former ill-fortunes, that he 
could not enjoy himself in his new unexpected happiness." 

Making the round of the ambulatory, behind the grand 
Norman pillars of the choir, we find a number of curious 
monuments. The first is that of Dr. Francis Anthony (ob. 
1623), who invented and believed in an extraordinary 
medicine which was to work universal cures — aw'uin poiabile^ 
being extract or honey of gold, capable of being dissolved 
in any liquid whatsoever. Dr. Anthony published a learned 
defence of his discovery, intended to show that "after inex- 
pressible labour, watching, and expense, he had, through 
the blessing of God, attained all he had sought for in 
his inquiries." The medicine obtained great celebrity in 
the reign of James I., and Dr. Anthony lived in much 
honour in Bartholomew Close, and bequeathed the secret 
of aurum potabile to his son, who wrote on his monu- 
ment, which bears three pillars encircled by a wreath, the 
epitaph — 



ST, BARTHOLOMEW THE GREAT, 187 

" There needs no verse to beautify thy praise, 
Or keep in memory thy spotless name ; 
Religion, virtue, and thy skill did raise 
A three-fold pillar to thy lasting fame. 
Though poisonous Envy ever sought to blame 
Or hide the fruits of thy intention, 
Yet shall they all commend that high design 
Of purest gold to make a medecine. 
That feel thy help by that thy rare invention." 

The next monument is that of Rycroft (1677), who trans- 
lated the polyglot Bible. It rests upon the volumes of his 
work. Then comes a monument to John Whiting, with the 
pretty epitaph — 

«' Shee first deceased, he for a little try'd 
To live without her, lik'd it not, and dy'd." 

Passing the piers which formed the boundary of the 

Lady Chapel, we reach the fine bust of James Rivers (1641), 

which is probably the work of Hubert de Sceur, who lived 

close by in Cloth Fair. Beneath, written at the beginning 

of the Civil War, are the verses — 

" Within this hollow vault there rests the frame 
Of the high soul that once inform'd the same; 
Torn from the service of the state in's prime 
By a disease malignant as the time : 
Whose life and death design'd no other end 
Thau to serve God, his country, and his friend ; 
Who, when ambition, tyranny, and pride 
Conquered the age, conquer'd himself and died." 

The next monument, of Edward Cooke, " philosopher 
and doctor," is of a kind of marble which drips with water 
in damp weather, and has the appropriate epitaph — 

" Unsluice, ye briny floods. What ! can ye keep 
Your eyes from teares, and see the marble weep ? 
Burst out for shame ; or if ye find noe vent 
For teares, yet stay and see the stones relent." 



I&8 WALKS IN LONDON. 

The magnificent alabaster tomb beyond this is that of 
Sir Walter Mildmay (1689), who was Chancellor of the 
Exchequer to Queen Elizabeth, and founder of Emanuel 
College at Cambridge. Fuller records how, being sup- 
posed to have a leaning towards Puritanism, when he came 
to court after the foundation of his college, Elizabeth 
saluted him with "Sir Walter, I hear you have made a 
Puritan foundation." " No, madam," he repHed ; " far be 
it from me to countenance anything contrary to your 
established laws ; but I have set an acorn which, when it 
becomes an oak, God knows what will be the fruit thereof." 
Sir Walter was one of the commissioners to Mary Queen 
of Scots at Fotheringay, and might have risen to the 
highest offices had he been more subservient to Elizabeth. 
Fuller tells how, "being employed, by virtue of his place, 
to advance the Queen's treasure, he did it industriously, 
faithfully, and conscionably, without wronging the subject, 
being very tender of their privileges, insomuch that he 
once complained in Parliament that many subsidies were 
granted and no grievances redressed ; which words being 
represented with disadvantage to the queen, made her to dis- 
affect him ; " so that he lived afterwards " in a court cloud, 
but in the sunshine of his country and a clear conscience." 
On the south wall of the choir, near this, is the monument 
of the Smallpage family (1558), with two admirably powerful 
busts. The register of this church commemorates the 
baptism of Hogarth the painter, November 28th, 1697. 

St. Bartholomew's Hospital, founded by Rahere in 11 23, 
and refounded by Henry VIH. upon the dissolution of 
monasteries, is open to all sufferers by sickness or accident, 



ST. BARTHOLOMEW THE LESS. 189 

and admits upwards of one hundred thousand patients 
in the course of the year. Its handsome buildings sur- 
round a large square with a fountain, and are approached 
from Smithfield by a gateway of 1702, adorned with a statue 
of Henry VIII., and figures of Sickness and Lameness. 

Just within the gate is the Church of St. Bartholomew the 
Less. It was built by Rahere immediately after his return 
from his penance at Rome. The tower contains some 
Norman arches of the founder's time, but the church was 
modernised by Dance in 1789, and rebuilt by Hard wick in 
1823 : the interior is octagonal. In the ante-chapel is an 
inscription to John Freke (1756), the surgeon represented 
by Hogarth as presiding over the dissecting table in his 
" Stages of Cruelty," and on the floor the brasses of William 
and Alicia Markeby (1439). On the north wall, near the 
altar, is the monument of the wife of Sir Thomas Bodley, 
founder of the Bodleian Library at Oxford ; and opposite it 
that of R. Balthorpe, serjeant-surgeon to Queen Elizabeth. 
James Heath, Carlyle's " Carrion Heath," the slanderer of 
Cromwell, was buried in the church in 1664, "near the 
screen door." The parish register records the baptism of 
Inigo Jones, whose father was a clothworker residing in 
the neighbouring Cloth Fair. 

The Great Hail (ring at the door on left in the court- 
yard) is approached by a wide oak staircase, the walls of 
which were gratuitously painted by Hogarth in 1736 with 
two immense pictures of " The Good Samaritan " and " The 
Pool of Bethesda." In his manuscript notes Hogarth says 
with regard to these pictures — 

"I entertained some thoughts of succeeding in what the puffers in 
books call * the great style ' of history painting ; so that, without having 



iQO WALKS IN LONDON, 

had a stroke of this grand business before, I quitted small portraits 
and familiar conversations, and with a smile at my own temerity com- 
menced history painting, and on a great staircase at St. Bartholomew's 
Hospital painted two Scripture stories with figures seven feet high. 
These I presented to the charity, and thought they might serve as a 
specimen to show that, were there an inclination in England for 
encouraging historical pictures, such a first essay might prove the 
painting them more easy attainable than is generally imagined. But 
as Religion, the great promoter of this style in other countries, 
rejected it in England, and I was unwilling to sink into a portrait- 
manufacturer — and still ambitious of being singular, I soon dropped 
all expectations of advantage from that source, and returned to the 
pursuit of my former dealings with the public at large." 

In the frieze below the large subjects are the Foundation 
of the Hospital by Rahere, and his Burial — probably by 
another hand. 

The Great Hall or Court-room contains — 

Vincenzo Carducci. St. Bartholomew. 

Hans Holbein ? Henry VIII., life-size, in a fur-lined gold-embroidered 
robe, with a black hat and white feather. 

Sir G. Kneller. Dr. RadcliiFe. 

Sir y. Reynolds. Percival Pott, Surgeon of the Hospital and 
inventor of many surgical instruments, 17 13 — 1788. A seated portrait 
in his 71st year. 

Sir David IVilkie. Alderman Matthias Prince Lucas, President of 
the Hospital, painted 1839. 

Just beyond St. Bartholomew's the Great is the entrance 
of Cloth Fair (long the annual resort of drapers), whose 
name is now the only relic of Bartholomew Fair, the great 
London carnival, which, originally established for useful 
purposes of trade, declined during its existence of seven 
centuries and a half into regular saturnalia, but only perished 
by lingering death in 1855. Cloth Fair, which was once a 
great centre for the French and Flemish merchants in 
Lon'lon, having escaped the Fire, is still full of old though 



CHARTERHOUSE SQUARE. 191 

squalid houses of Elizabethan or Jacobian date: some 
are older still, and were built by Lord Rich, one of the 
worst of the favourites of Henry VIII., to whom the 
priory was granted, with many privileges, at the Dissolu- 
tion. Here the Pie Powder — Pied-Poudre — Court was 
held annually at the public-house called the Hand and 
Shears during Bartholomew Fair, for the sorting and 
correction of the weights and measures used in the market, 
and for granting licences for the exhibition in the fair. 
Blackstone says, "The lowest, and at the same time the 
most expeditious, court of justice known to the law of 
England is the Court of Pie-poudre, curia pedis pulverizati 
— so called from the dusty feet of the suitors," or, accord- 
ing to Sir Edward Coke, "because justice is there done 
as speedily as dust can fall from the foot." Long LanCy 
close by, is commemorated by Congreve, and Duck Lane 
by Swift. In Bartholojnew Close Milton was secreted at 
the Restoration, till his pardon was signed. 

" Smithfield Saloop," of Turkish origin, a drink made by 
boiling the bulbs of Orchis mascula and Orchis morio, was 
long the most popular midnight street refreshment in 
London, being considered a sovereign cure for the head- 
aches arising from drunkenness. 

Continuing, along the east side of the Metropolitan Meat 
Market, we reach Charterhouse Square^ where in the seven- 
teenth century were many handsome palaces, such as 
Rutland House (sti.l commemorated in Rutland Place) and 
one where the Venetian ambassadors used to lod^e.* It is 
now a quiet green amid the houses. Here, before the reign 
Oi Edward III., was a desolate common called " No Man's 

• Howell's " Londinopolis," fol. 1657, p. 343. 



102 WALKS IN LONDON. 

Land," between the lands of the Abbey of Westminster and 
ihe gardens of the Knights of St. John in Clerkenwell. In 
the terrible plague of 1348, when thousands of bodies 
were flung loosely into pits without any religious service 
whatever, Ralph Stratford, who was then Bishop of London, 
purchased these three desolate acres, and, building a chapel 
there, where masses should be perpetually said for the 
repose of the dead, called it " Pardon Churchyard." Fifty 
thousand persons were buried in this cemetery and in the 
adjoining Spital Croft, which was purchased by Sir Walter 
Manny, the hero of Edward III.'s French wars, who, in 
13 7 1, founded a Carthusian convent here, and called it 
"The House of the Salutation of the Mother of God." 
The story of the dissolution of the convent is one of the 
most touching of the time. Prior Houghton, who was 
then superior, spoke too openly against the spoliation of 
church lands by the king, and so (1534) drew down the 
wrath of the royal commissioners. When he knew that 
.hey were suspecte 1 of treason, he gathered his community 
around him, and exhorted them to faith and patience. 
Maurice Chauncy describes the affecting scene which fol- 
lowed : — 

"The day after the Prior preached a sermon in the chapel on the 
59th Psalm — * O God, Thou hast cast us off, Thou hast destroyed us ; ' 
concluding with the words, ' It is better that we should suffer here a 
short penance for our faults, than be reserved for the eternal pains of 
hell hereafter ; ' and so ending, he turned to us and bade us all do as 
we saw him do. Then rising from his place he went direct to the 
eldest of the brethren, who was sitting nearest to himself, and kneeling 
before him, begged his forgiveness for any offence which in heart, 
word, or deed, he might have committed against him. Thence he 
proceeded to the next, and said the same ; and so to the next, through 
us all, we fol'owing him and saying as he did, each from each imploring 
pardon." — Chauncy, Hhtoria JSIartyrum, quoted by Froude. 



CHAR TERHO USE. 193 

The prior and several of the monks were sentenced to be 
hung, drawn, and quartered at Tyburn. Sir Thomas More 
(who had himself lived for four years in the Charterhouse — 
religiously, without vow, giving himself up to meditation and 
prayer) saw them led to execution from his prison window, 
and said to his daughter, Mrs. Roper, who was with him, 
" Lo, dost thou not see, Megg, that these blessed fathers be 
now as cheerfully going to their deaths as bridegrooms to 
their marriage." Several others of the monks were after- 
wards executed, and ten were starved to death in Newgate; 
the remainder fled to Bruges. 

" If we would understand the true spirit of the time, we must regard 
Catholics and Protestants as gallant soldiers, whose deaths, when they 
fall, are not painful, but glorious ; and whose devotion we are equally 
able to admire, even where we cannot equally approve their cause. 
Courage and self-sacrifice are beautiful alike in an enemy and in a 
friend. And while we exult in that chivalry with which the Smithfield 
martyrs bought England's freedom with their blood, so we will not 
refuse our admiration to those other gallant old men whose high forms, 
in the sunset of the old faith, stand transfigured on the horizon, tinged 
with the light of its dying gloiy." — Froude, ii. 341. 

The buildings of the Charterhouse were presented to 
several of the king's favourites in turn, and in 1565 were 
sold by the Norths to the Duke of Norfolk, who pulled 
down many of the monastic buildings, and added rooms 
more fitted to a palatial residence. Thon^as Howard, Earl 
of Suffolk, second son of the Duke of Norfolk, beheaded 
for Mary Queen of Scots, sold the Charterhouse for 
;j^i3,ooo to Thomas Sutton, of Camps Castle, in Cam- 
bridgeshire, who had made an enormous fortune in North- 
umbrian coal-mines. He used it to found (161 1) a hospital 
for aged men and a school for children of poor parents — 

VOL. I. o 



194 WALKS IN LONDON, 

the ''Uiple good" of Bacon, the "masterpiece of English 
charity" of Fuller. In 1872 the school was removed to 
Godalming, supposed to be a more healthy situation, 
and the land which was occupied by its buildings and 
playground was sold to the Merchant Tailors for their 
school. But the rest of the foundation of Sutton still exists 
where he left it. 

The Charterhouse (shown by the Porter) is entered from 
the Square by a perpendicular arch, with a projecting shelf 
above it, supported by lions. Immediately opposite is a 
brick gateway belonging to the monastic buildings, which is 
that where the " arm of Houghton was hung up as a bloody 
sign to awe the remaining brothers to obedience," * when his 
head was exposed on London Bridge. The second court 
contains the Master's house, and is faced by the great 
hall of the Dukes of Norfolk. By a door in the right 
wall we pass to a Cloister, containing monuments to 
Thackeray, John Leech, Sir Henry Havelock, old Car- 
thusians, and Archdeacon Hale, long a master of the 
Charterhouse. Hence we enter Brook Hall, to which 
Brook, a master of the Charterhouse, whose picture 
hangs here, was confined by Cromwell : another door 
leads to the Chapel, of which the groined entrance dates 
from monastic times, but the rest is Jacobian. On the left 
of the altar is the magnificent alabaster tomb of Sutton, 
who died Dec. 12, 161 1, a few months after his foundation 
of the Charterhouse. The upper part of the tomb repre- 
sents his funeral sermon, with the poor Brethren seated 
round. On the cornice are figures of Faith and Hope, 
Labour and Rest, Plenty and Want. The whole is the work 

• Froude, vi. 359. 



CHARTERHOUSE. 



195 



of Nicholas Stone and Janseii of Southwark. Opposite, is 
an interesting tomb of Francis Beaumont, an early master. 
The monument of Edward Law, Lord Ellenborough, is by 
Chantrey. There are tablets to Dr. Raine and other 
eminent masters. 

The old Brick Cloister of the monastic Charterhouse 
extends along one side of the playground, on one side 
of which are the modern buildings of the Merchant 




Staircase of Norfolk House. 



Tailors' School. All the movable relics of Charterhouse 
School were taken away when the school was removed, 
and nothing remains of its buildings, but the place is 
still dear to many Charterhouse boys. Richard Lovelace, 
Isaac Barrow, Addison, Steele, John Wesley, Sir 
William Blackstone, Grote, Thirlwall, Julius Hare, Sir 
Henry Havelock, Sir Charles Eastlake, Thackeray, and 
John Leech were Carthusians. A grand Staircase of Queen 
Elizabeth's time, with the greyhound of Sutton on the 



iq6 



WALKS IN LONDON. 



banisters, leads to the Officers' Library, with a portrait 
of Daniel Ray, who gave its books ; and to the Drawing 
Room of old Norfolk house, with a beautiful ceiling, and a 
noble fire-place painted in Flanders, with figures of Faith, 
Hope, and Charity, the Twelve Apostles, and, in the centre, 
the Royal Arms, with C. R. on the tails of the Lion and 
Unicorn. There are some fine old tapestries in this room 




Washhouse Court, Exterior. 



— one of them representing the Siege of Calais. It was 
these rooms which (then belonging to Lord North) were 
used by Elizabeth on her first arrival in London from 
Bishops Hatfield, before her coronation. 

The Pensioners' Hall, where the Poor Brethren dine, was 
the hall of Norfolk House. It has a noble roof, semi- 
circular in the middle flat at the sides, supported by large 



CHAR TERHOUSE. 



197 



oaken brackets. The chimney-piece is adorned with the 
ai'ms of Sutton, and the cannon at the sides were added 
by him to commemorate his having commanded artillery 
against the Scots, and having fitted up a vessel against 
the Spanish Armada. 

On the left of the northern quadrangle is the venerable 
Washhouse Court, or Poplar Courts the outer wall of which, 




Washhouse Court, Interior. 



being part of the monastic buildings, is adorned with a 
cross, I.H.S., &c., in the brickwork. It is in one of the 
little houses of this court that Thackeray paints the beauti- 
ful close of Thomas Newcome's life. Elkanah Setde, the 
rival of Dryden, died here in 1723 — 4. The Preachers' 
Court and Pensioners* Court are miserable works of Blore. 

We cannot leave the Charterhouse without quoting 
Thackeray's touching reminiscence of his founder's day : — 



t98 WALKS IN LONDON. 

"The death-iay of the founder is still kept solemnly by the Cister- 
cians. In their chapel, where assemble the boys of the school, and 
the fourscore old men of the hospital, the founder's tomb stands — a 
huge edifice, emblazoned with heraldic decorations and clumsy carved 
allegories. There is an old hall, a beautiful specimen of the architec* 
ture of James's time. An old hall? Many old halls, old staircases, 
old passages, old chambers decorated with old portraits, walking in 
the midst of which we walk, as it were, in the early seventeenth cen- 
tury. To others than Cistercians, Grey Friars is a dreary place, 
possibly. Nevertheless the pupils educated there love to revisit it, 
and the oldest of us grow young again for an hour or two as we come 
back into those scenes of childhood. 

" The custom of the school is, that on the I2th of December, the 
Founder's Day, the head gown -boy shall recite a Latin oration, in 
praise Fundatoris Nostri, and upon other subjects, and a goodly com- 
pany of old Cistercians is generally brought together to attend this 
oration ; after which we go to chapel and have a sermon ; after which 
we adjourn to a great dinner, where old condisciples meet, old toasts 
are given, and speeches are made. Before marching from the oration- 
hall to chapel, the stewards of the day's dinner, according to old- 
fashioned rite, have wands put into their hands, walk to church at the 
head of the procession, and sit there in places of honour. The boys 
are already in their seats, with smug fresh faces, and shining white 
collars ; the old black-gowned pensioners are on their benches, the 
chapel is lighted, and the founder's tomb, with its grotesque carvings, 
monsters, heraldries, darkles and shines with the most wonderful 
shadows and lights. There he lies, Fundator Noster, in his ruff and 
gown, awaiting the Great Examination Day. We oldsters, be we ever 
so old, become boys again as we look at that familiar old tomb, and 
think how the seats are altered since we were here, and how the 
doctor — not the present doctor, the doctor of our time — used to sit 
yonder, and his awful eye used to frighten us shuddering boys, on 
whom it lighted ; and how the boy next us would kick our shins during 
service time, and how the monitor would cane us afterwards because 
our shins were kicked. Yonder sit forty cherry-cheeked boys, thinking 
about home and holidays to-morrow. Yonder sit some threescore old 
gentlemen — pensioners of the hospital, listening to the prayers and the 
psalms. You hear them coughing feebly in the twilight — the old 
reverend blackgowns. Is Codd Ajax alive ? you wonder. The Cistercian 
lads called these old gentlemen ' codds,' I know not wherefore — but is 
old Codd Ajax alive ? I wonder, or Codd Soldier, or kind old Codd 
Gentleman, or has the grave closed over them ? A plenty of candles 
light up this chapel, and this scene of age and youth, and early memo- 



ST. JOHN'S GATE. 199 

ries, and pompous death. How solemn the well-remembered prayers 
are, here uttered again in the place where in childhood we used to 
hear them ! How beautiful and decorous the rite ! How noble the 
ancient words of the supplications which the priest utters, and to which 
generations of past children, and troops of bygone seniors, have cried 
* Amen,' under those arches ! The service for Founder's Day is a 
special one, one of the Psalms selected being the thirty-seventh, and 
we hear — ' 23. The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord : 
and he delighteth in his way. 24. Though he fall, he shall not be 
utterly cast down ; for the Lord upholdeth him with his hand. 25. 
I have been young, and now am old : yet have I not seen the righteous 
forsaken, nor his seed begging bread.* " 

Returning to Smithfield, on the right, where St. John's 
Lane falls into St. John's Street, Sir Baptist Hicks, a city 
mercer,* built, in 161 2, the Sessions House, where the 
regicides and the conspirators in the Popish plot were tried, 
where William, Lord Russell, was condemned to death, and 
Count Konigsmarck, the notorious assassin of Mr. Thynne, 
was acquitted. The distances on the great north road 
were marked from Hicks' Hall. The Court House was 
removed to Clerkenwell Green in 1782. Opposite the site 
of the old building is the Cross Keys Inn, a favourite resort 
of Richard Savage. Turning into St. John^s Lane, we see 
the way closed by the old Gateway of the Knights of St. 
John of Jerusalem, of which Dr. Johnson said to Boswell 
that, when he first saw it, he " beheld it with reverence." 
The old public-house of Baptist's Head (from Sir Baptist 
Hicks), on the right of the lane, was the house of Sir 
Thomas Forster, a judge, who died in 1612. His arms 
appear over a fire-place in the tap-room. 

The Priory of St. John, the chief English seat of the 

• He was afterwards created Viscount Campden, his eldest daughter married 
Ix)rd Noel, and the well-known preacher. Baptist Noel, derived his odd name 
from this ancestor. 



200 WALKS IN LONDON, 

Knights Hospitallers of St. John of Jerusalem* was founded in 
the reign of Henry I. (i loo) by a baron named Jordan Briset 
and Muriel his wife, and was consecrated in 1185 by Hera- 
clius, Patriarch of Jerusalem (buried in the Temple Church), 
who here urged Henry to undertake a crusade, and fell into 
a great rage on his refusal. John knighted Alexander of 
Scotland here, and Edward I. came hither to spend his 
honeymoon with Eleanor. This early Priory was so large 
that, when it was burnt by the rebels under Wat Tyler, 
the conflagration lasted seven days. All the other houses of 
the knights in London were destroyed by the insurgents at 
the same time, and the prior. Sir Robert Hales, was be- 
headed, in revenge for his having advised the king (Richard 
II.) to make no terms with the commons. The Priory, 
however, was soon rebuilt, and Henry IV. and V. frequently 
stayed there, and it was there that — finding how ill it would 
be received by the people of England — Richard III. gave a 
public denial to the rumours of his intended marriage with 
his niece Elizabeth of York. The Order of St. John was 
suppressed by Henry VIII. on pretext that the knights 
denied his supremacy, two of those who opposed him 
being beheaded, and a third hung and quartered. But the 
Priory still continued to be the resort of royalty, and Mary 
resided here frequently during the reign of Edward VI., 
and rode hence to pay state visits to her brother, attended 
by a great troop of Catholic ladies and gentlemen. The 
buildings of the Priory perished for the most part when 
they were blown up by the Protector Somerset, who intended 
to use them in building his palace in the Strand. 

The south Gate of St, John's Priory ^ lately repurchased by 

* Afterwards called Kn'ghts of Rhodes, and lastly Knights of Malta. 



ST. yOHN'S GATE. 



201 



the Order of the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, was built 
as we now see it by Sir Thomas Docwra, Prior, in 1504. It is 
a fine specimen of perpendicular architecture. On the outside 
are two shields adorned with the arms of the Order and of 
Docwra. In the centre of the groined roof is the Lamb 




St. John's Gate, Clerkenwell. 



bearing a flag, kneeling on the clasped gospels. The old 
rooms above the gate are highly picturesque, and have been 
filled with an interesting series of memorials relating to its 
history. This collection is rather literary than military or 
monastic, for here Cave the printer started, in January 1731, 



202 



WALKS IN LONDON. 



The Gentleman's Magazine, which has always borne a picture 
of the gate on its cover, so that its appearance is familiar 
to thousands who have never beheld it. Dr. Johnson, 
previously unknown, used to work for Cave at so much 




Dr. Johnson's Chair, St. John's Gate. 



•per sheet, and for some time was almost wholly dependent 
upon his magazine articles. The accounts which he gave 
of the marvellous powers of his friend Garrick inspired 
Cave with a desire to see him act, and in the old room, 
which is now the dining-hall of the tavern, Garrick is said 



ST, yOHN'Sy CLERKENWELL, 203 

to have made his debut before a select audience in Fielding's 
Mock Doctor. An old chair, placed beneath his bust in this 
room, is still shown as " Dr. Johnson's chair." After he 
had anonymously published his " Life of Richard Savage," 
Walter Harte, author of the " Life of Gustavus Adolphus," 
dined with Cave at St. John's and greatly commended the 
book. Soon afterwards Cave told him that he had uncon- 
sciously given great pleasure to some one when he was 
dining with him, and on the inquiry, " How can that be ? " 
reminded him of the plate of food which had been sent 
behind the screen at dinner, and told him that Johnson, 
the author of the book he commended, considered himself 
too shabbily dressed to appear, but had devoured the 
praises with his dinner. 

St. Johris Square marks the courtyard of the Priory. 
The nave and aisles and the stately tower of the church 
were destroyed by Somerset. A remnant of the choir, 
mauled and defaced, long used as a Presbyterian meeting- 
house and gutted in Sacheverell's riots, is now St. John's 
Church. Langhorne the poet was its curate in 1764. The 
bases of some of the old pillars may be traced in the upper 
church, but it has nothing really noticeable except its pic- 
turesque and beautiful Crypt, consisting of four bays, two of 
them semi-Norman and two early English. The voussoirs 
of the arch-ribs, instead of being cut to a curve — /.<?. 
following the line struck from a centre — are each of them 
straight, the necessary curvature being obtained by making 
these voussoirs so small that their want of curvature is 
scarcely perceptible.* Here the light streams in among 
the well-preserved arches from a little graveyard, which 

• See a paper by Pettit Griffith, F.S.A., quoted in the Builder oi ^\x\y i, 1876. 



204 



WALKS IN LONDON. 



contains the tomb of the father and mother and other rela- 
tions of Wilkes Booth, the murderer of President Lincoln. 

Till a few years ago people frequently came to this crypt 
to visit the coffin (now buried) of " Scratching Fanny, the 
Cock Lane Ghost," which had excited the utmost attention 
in 1762, being, as Walpole said, not an apparition, but an 
audition. It was supposed that the spirit of a young lady 
poisoned by a lover to whom she had bequeathed her 




Crypt of St. John's, Clerkenwell. 



property, came to visit, invisibly, but with very mysterious 
noises, a girl named Parsons who lived in Cock Lane 
(between Smithfield and Holborn) and was daughter to the 
clerk of St. Sepulchre's Church. Horace Walpole went 
to see the victim, with the Duke of York, Lady Northum- 
berland, Lady Mary Coke, and Lord Hertford, but after 
waiting till half-past one in tlie morning in a suffocating 
room with fifty people crowded into it, he was told that 



ST. JOHN'S, CLERKENWELL, 205 

the ffhost would not come that nieht till seven in the morn- 
ing, •* when," says Walpole, " there were only prentices and 
old women." At length, the ghost having promised, by an 
affirmative knock, that she would attend any one of her 
visitors in the vaults of St. John's Church, and there knock 
upon her coffin, an investigation was made, of which Dr. 
Johnson, who was present, has left a description : — 

*' About ten at night, the gentlemen met in the chamber in which 
the girl, supposed to be disturbed by a spirit, had with proper caution 
been put to bed by several ladies. They sate rather more than an 
hour, and hearing nothing, went down-stairs, where they interrogated 
the father of the girl, who denied in the strongest terms any knowledge 
or belief of fraud. While they were inquiring and deliberating, they 
were summoned into the girl's chamber by some ladies who were near 
her bed, and who had heard knocks and scratches. When the gentle- 
men entered, the girl declared that she felt the spirit like a mouse 
upon her back, when the spirit was very solemnly required to manifest 
its existence by appearance, by impression on the hand or body of 
any present, or any other agency ; but no evidence of any preter- 
natural power was exhibited. The spirit was then very seriously 
advertised that the person to whom the promise was made of striking 
the coffin was then about to visit the vault, and that the performance 
of the promise was then claimed. The company at one o'clock went 
into the church, and the gentleman to whom the promise was made 
went with another into the vault. The spirit was solemnly required to 
perform its promise, but nothing more than silence ensued ; the per- 
son supposed to be accused by the spirit then went down with several 
others, but no effect was perceived. Upon their return they examined 
the girl, but could draw no confession from her. Between two and 
three she desired and was permitted to go home with her father. It 
is therefore the opinion of the whole assembly that the child has some 
art of making or counterfeiting a particular noise, and that there is no 
agency of any higher cause." 

The failure of the investigation led to the discovery that 
the father of the girl who was the supposed object of 
spiritual visitation had arranged the plot in order to frighten 
the man accused of murder into remitting a loan which he 



2o6 WALKS IN LONDON. 

had received from him whilst he was lodging in his house. 

Parsons was imprisoned for a year, and placed three times 

in the pillory, where, however, instead of maltreating him, 

the London mob raised a subscription in his favour. The 

account of the nocturnal expedition of Dr. Johnson and his 

friends to the crypt caused great amusement, which was 

enhanced by the appearance of Churchill's poem of " The 

Ghost." 

" Through the dull deep surrounding gloom, 
In close array, t'wards Fanny's tomb 
Adventured forth ; Caution before, 
With heedful step, a lanthorn bore, 
Pointing at graves ; and in the rear, 
Trembling and talking loud, went Fear. 

• ♦ ♦ • « 
Thrice each the pond'rous key apply' d 
And thrice to turn it vainly try'd. 
Till, taught by Prudence to unite, 
And straining with collected might. 
The stubborn wards resist no more, 
But open flies the growling door. 
Three paces back they feU, amazed. 
Like statues stood, like madmen gazed. 

• * ♦ * * 
Silent all three went in ; about 

All three turn'd silent, and came out." 

A house on the west side of St. John's Square, destroyed 
in erecting a new street in 1877, was Burnet House, the 
residence of the famous Whig Bishop of Salisbury (1643 — 
17 1 5) who was author of the " History of the Reformation " 
and of his " Own Times," and who courageously attended 
Lord Russell to the scaffold. Ledbury Place occupies the 
site of the Bishop's garden. 

Clerkenwell is now the especial abode of London clock- 
makers and working-jewellers and makers of meteorological 



NEWCASTLE HOUSE, 207 

and mathematical instruments. Jewellers'-work which is 
intrusted to West-end jewellers is generally sent here to be 
executed. But in the latter part of the sixteenth century, 
when, as we may see by Ralph Aggas's map, it was still 
almost in the country, a great number of the nobility 
resided there. Aylesbury Street commemorates the house 
of the Earls of Aylesbury, Berkeley Street that of the Earls 
of Berkeley. Various streets and squares are, Compton, 
Northampton, Perceval, Spencer, Wynyate, and Ashby, 
from the different names and titles of the Northampton 
family. Newcastle Place occupies the site of the great 
house of WiUiam Cavendish, Duke of Newcastle, who was 
fined three-quarters of a million by Cromwell; and of his 
wife Margaret Lucas,* the would-be learned lady, who pub- 
lished ten folio volumes which nobody ever read, and who, 
when an old woman, always had a footman to sleep in her 
dressing-room, and called out " John " whenever a fugitive 
thought struck her in the night, and bade him get up, light 
a candle, and commit it to paper at once. This is the 
lady of whom Pepys wrote — 

"April 26, 1667. Met my Lady Newcastle, with her coaches and 
footmen, all in velvet ; herself, whom I never saw before, as I have 
heard her often described, for all the town talk is nowadays of her 
extravagance, with her velvet caps, her hair about her eare, many black 
patches, because of pimples about her mouth, naked necked, without 
anything about it, and a black /'kj^ au corps.'''' 

" Of aU the riders upon Pegasus, there have not been a more fantastic 
couple than his Grace and his faithful Duchess, who was never off her 
pillion. ' ' — Walpole. 

Newcastle House was afterwards inhabited by Elizabeth, 
daughter of Henry, second Duke of Newcastle, whose first 

» Their tomb is in the North Transept of Westminster Abbey. 



208 WALKS IN LONDON. 

husband was Christopher Monk, second Duke of Albemarle. 
As his widow her immense riches turned her brain, and she 
declared she would marry none except a sovereign prince. 
The first Duke of Montague, however, gained her hand by- 
making her believe he was the Emperor of China ! He 
treated her very ill, but she survived him for thirty years, 
and died at ninety-six, in 1738, in Newcastle House, served 
to the last, as a sovereign, on bended knee. 

If we go from St. John's Square through Jerusalem Passage, 
the house at the corner was that of Thomas Britton, the 
" musical small-coal-man," well known from his concerts in 
the last century. 

" Though doom'd to small-coal, yet to arts ally'd 
Rich without wealth, and famous without pride ; 
Musick's best patron, judge of books and men, 
Belov'd and honor'd by Apollo's train : 
In Greece or Rome sure never did appear 
So bright a genius, in so dark a sphere." — Prior. 

The Sessions House on Clerkenwell Green (now a paved 
square on the hill-side) is worth visiting, for it was built 
when Hicks's Hall was pulled down, and contains, on the 
lower floor, its fine old chimney-piece of James the First's 
time, which saw the condemnation of William, Lord Russell, 
and the services of his devoted wife as amanuensis, 

— " that sweet saint who sate by Russell's side 
Under the judgment seat.* 

In an upper room, besides the portrait of Sir Baptist Hicks, 

are — 

Gainsborough. Hugh, Duke of Northumberland. 
Sir T. Lawrence. W. Main waring, Esq. 

• Rogers' " Human Life." 



ST. JAMES'S CHURCH, CLERKENWELL. 209 

The ugly Church of St. James was built 1788-92 on the site 
of a church which formed the choir of a Benedictine 
nunnery founded by Jordan Briset in iioo. There is a 
perfect list of the succession of the prioresses of Clerken- 
well, ending with Isabella Sackville, who was buried near 
the high altar of the old church, which contained many 
other curious monuments, including the tomb of the 
founder and his wife Muriel (11 24), who were buried in the 
chapter-house, and the brass of John Bell, Bishop of 
Worcester in the time of Henry VIII. The most remark- 
able monument, a lofty canopied altar tomb, was that of 
Sir William Weston, last Prior of St. John's, who retired 
with a pension of ;;^ 1,000 a year, which was never paid, as 
he died of a broken heart on the day when the final disso- 
lution of the Priory was announced. His tomb was broken 
up and sold on the destruction of the old church, but his 
effigy, which Weever calls " the portraiture of the dead man 
in his shroud, the most artificially cut in stone that man 
ever beheld," still exists amongst the coals and rubbish in 
the vaults of the present building. Here also, standing 
erect against the wall by the side of a prominent sufferer 
for the Roman Catholic faith, is the interesting though 
mutilated effigy of Elizabeth Sondes, an early sufferer for 
Protestantism, who was in waiting on the Princess Eliza- 
beth in the Tower, and who, refusing to go to mass, was 
forced to fly to Geneva. After Elizabeth came to the 
throne she was made Woman of the Bed Chamber, and 
marrying Sir Maurice Berkeley (who gave a name to Berke- 
ley Street, Clerkenwell), Standard-bearer to Henry VIII., 
Edward VI., and Elizabeth, died in 1585. There is a 
handsome tomb in the vaults to Elizabeth, Countess of 

VOL. I. p 



210 WALKS IN LONDON. 

Exeter, 1653. A tablet marks the place where Burnet, the 
famous Bishop of Salisbury, is buried, who died in St. John's 
Square, March 17, 1714-15. He was borne to the grave 
with a stately funeral, attended by many of the bishops, but 
the rabble threw dirt upon his coffin. There is a second 
memorial to Bishop Burnet in the porch of the modern 
church, on which his mitre is represented surmounting the 
many volumes of his works. A good monument of the 
period, with howling cupids, is that of Elizabeth Partridge, 
1702. In a passage to the right of the altar is a curious 
monument to one of the Marshals of the Company of 
" Finsbury Archers " enrolled as *' Reginae Katherinae Sagi- 
tarii," in honour of Katherine of Braganza, inscribed — 



' Sr William "Wood lyes very neare this stone, 
In's time in archery excell'd by none. 
Few were his equalls. And this noble art 
Has suff'er'd now in the most tender part. 
Long did he live the honour of the bow, 
And his lon^ life to that alone did owe. 
But how can art secure ? Or what can save 
Extreme old age from an appointed grave } 
Surviving archers much his losse lament. 
And in respect bestow'd this monument : 
Where whistling arrows did his worth proclaim, 
And eterniz'd his memory and his name. 

Obiit Sept. 4, Anno Dni. 1691. -<Etat. 82. 



It is grievous that the monument of John Weever (1631), 
author of that treasure-store of antiquity the " Antient 
Funeral Monuments " (who died hard by at his house in 
Clerkenwell Close), should have been lost. It stood 
against the first pillar to the right of the altar, and was 
inscribed — 



THE CLERKS' WELL, 211 

' Wec.ver, who laboured in a learned strain 
To make men long since dead to live again, * 

And with expense of oyle and ink did watch 
From the wonn's mouth the sleeping corps to snatch. 
Hath by his industry begot a way 
Death (who insidiates all things) to betray, 
Redeeming freely, by his care and cost, 
Many a sad herse, which time long since gave lost : 
And to forgotten dust such spirit did give. 
To make it in our memories to live ; 
For wheresoe'er a ruined tomb he found, 
His pen hath built it new out of the ground : 
'Twixt Earth and him this interchange we find, 
She hath to him, he been to her like kind : 
She was his mother, he (a grateful child) 
Made her his theme, in a large work compU'd 
Of Funeral Relicks, and brave structures rear'd 
On such as seemed unto her most indear'd — 
Alternately a grave to him she lent, 
O'er which his book remains a monument." * 



[In the hollow north of the church is the Clerkenwell 
House of Detention^ where a mark in the outer wall, showing 
where it has been rebuilt, is a memorial of the Fenian 
explosion of Dec. 13, 1867, which had as its object the 
rescue of the prisoners Burke and Casey.] 

From the church, the ground slopes rapidly to the valley 
of the Fleet, which was here called the River of Wells, 
from the number of springs which fell into it. One of 
these was, till lately, marked by an inscription on a pump 
at the corner of Ray Street, and was interesting as the 
Clerks' Well — " Fons Clericorum " — which gave Clerken- 
well its name, and which, says Stow, " took its name from 
the parish clerks of London, who of old time were 
accustomed there yearly to assemble, and to play some 

♦ Another epitaph is given by Stijpe, but is of doubtful origin. 



212 WALKS IN LONDON. 

large history of Holy Scripture. For example, of later 
time — to wit, in the year 1390, the fourteenth of Richard II. 
— I read that the parish clerks of London, on the i8th of 
July, played interludes at Skinner's Well,* near unto Clerks' 
Well, which play continued three days together ; the king, 
the queen, and nobles being present." 

This district bore a very evil reputation in the last 
century. " Hockley in the Hole," which has disappeared 
in recent improvements, was a nest of thieves, and the site 
of a famous rendezvous for the baiting of bears and wolves. 
Fielding makes Jonathan Wild the son of a woman at 
Hockley in the Hole, and the place is commemorated in 
Gay's " Beggars' Opera." 

Beyond Farringdon Road, Coid Bath Square takes its 
name from an ancient ''cold spring" which still supplies a 
bathing establishment. The Cold Bath Fields Prison has 
been much altered since Southey and Coleridge wrote in 
" The Devil's Walk "— . 

" As he went through Coldbath Fields he saw 
A solitary cell ; 
And the Devil was pleased, for it gave him a hint 
P or improving his prisons in hell." 

Spa Fields, only covered with houses in the present 
century, contain the Spa Fields Pantheon, long turned into 
a dissenting chapel. It was Shrubsole, the organist of this 
chapel, who composed the well-known hymn — 

"All hail the power of Jesu's name." 

Lady Huntingdon, who bought the chapel, lived close 
by in an old house on the east side of it. She was born 

♦ This well had already disappeared in the reign of Henry VIII. 



CLERKENWELL. 2I3 

in 1 70 1, was converted to Methodism by her sister-in-law 
Lady Margaret Hastings, married the Earl of Huntingdon 
in 1728, and died in 1791. 

At 26 Great Bath Street lived Emanuel Swedenborg, 
author of " The True Christian Religion," and here he died 
in 1772. 

If we return up the hill to St. John's Street, and turn to the 
north, we pass, at the corner of Ashby Street (on the site 
of the old house which was the principal residence of the 
Comptons till the end of the seventeenth century), the 
Martyrs' Memorial Church (St. Peter's, Clerkenwell), built 
1869 by E. L. Blackburne. It is appropriately decorated 
outside with statues of those who suffered in Smithfield for 
the Protestant cause — Philpot, Frith, Rogers, Tomkins, ' 
Bradford, Anne Askew, and others. 

Red Bull Yard, opening from St. John's Street, marks 
the site of the Red Bull Playhouse, built c. 1570, where 
Heywood's Plays were acted. It was one of the six 
Theatres allowed in London in the reign of Charles I, and 
is mentioned abusively in Prynne's Satire. During the 
Commonwealth it seems to have been the only licensed 
Theatre, and was used for performances of " Drolls." 

" When the publique theatres were shut up, and the actors for- 
bidden to present us with any of their tragedies, because we had 
enough of that in earnest ; and of comedies, because therein the vices of 
the age were too lively and smartly represented ; then all that we 
could divert ourselves with were these humours and pieces of plays, 
which passing under the name of a merry conceited fellow called 
Bottom the Weaver, Simpleton the Smith, John Swabber, or some 
such title, were allowed us, and that by stealth too, and under pretence 
of rope-dancing, or the like. I have seen the Red Bull play-house, 
which was a large one, so full, that as many went back for want of 
room as had entered ; and, as meanly as you now think of these 



214 WALKS IN LONDON. 

drolls, they were then acted by the best comedians." — Kirktnan. The 
Wits, or Sport upon Sport, ibjz. 

On the left, on some of the highest ground in London, 
Myddelton Street, Myddelton Square, and Myddelton Place 
commemorate Sir Hugh Myddelton the inventor of the 
artificial JVew River which brings water from the Chadswell 
Springs between Hertford and Ware for the supply of the 
City of London : it was opened in 1620. 

Encircled by these memorials of a man who was one 
of the greatest benefactors of London, but who was never 
appreciated in his lifetime, and close to the offices of the 
New River Head, is Sadler's Wells, where was a holy well, 
which was pretended by the monks of Clerkenwell to owe 
its healing powers to their prayers. This mineral spring 
was rediscovered by a man named Sadler in 1683, it was 
long popular, and, possessing the same chalybeate qualities, 
was called the New Tunbridge Wells. The Princesses 
Amelia and Caroline, daughters of George 11. , made it the 
fashion by coming daily to visit it in the summer of 1733. 
Sadler's Wells is now better known by its Theatre (rebuilt 
1876 — 77), to which the New River, which flows past the 
house, has often been diverted, and used for aquatic per- 
formances. Here Grimaldi, the famous clown, became 
known to the public, and here Giovanni Battista Belzoni 
(son of a barber at Padua), afterwards famous as an African 
traveller, used to perform athletic feats in 1802, as **the 
Patagonian Samson." Sir Hugh Myddelion's Tavern 
(rebuilt), on the south of the Theatre, has always been the 
resort of its actors and actresses. It is commemorated in 
Hogarth's " Evening," published 1738. 

Bagnigge Wells, another mineral spring, where Nell 



ISLINGTON, 215 

Gwynne had a country house, and whither people ia the 

last century used to 

*♦ repair 
To swallow dust and call it air," 

has disappeared in the site of the Phoenix Brewery. 

St. John's Street leads to Islington^ with its corner 
public-house of The Angel, well known as an omnibus- 
terminus. The wide High Street, with its occasional trees 
and low houses, reminds ' one pleasantly of many country 
villages in Hertfordshire and Essex. On the left is the 
great Agriadtural Hall (measuring 384 feet by 217), opened 
in 1862. Besides the usual Cattle Shows, it is used for 
Horse Shows and Dog Shows. The great Horse Show takes 
place in the summer, in the week between Epsom and 
Ascot races. 

The name of Islington is said to be derived from Ishel- 
dun, the Lower Fortress. Its pleasant open fields were 
the great resort for archery, which was almost universally 
practised till the reign of James I. Edward III. desired 
that every able-bodied citizen should employ his leisure in 
the use of bows and arrows, and in the reign of Richard II. 
an act was passed compelling all men-servants to practise 
archery in their leisure hours, and especially on Sundays 
and holidays. In the time of Henry VIII. Islington was 
covered with shooting butts, and the titles of Duke of 
Shoreditch, Marquis of Islington, and Earl of Pancras were 
popularly givtu to the king's favourite archers. At this 
time every father was enjoined to present his son with a 
bow and three arrows as soon as he should be seven years 
old, and all men except clergy and judges were compelled 
occasionally to shoot at the butts. By a statute of 2'^rd 



2i6 WALKS IN LONDON. 

Henry VIII. men above twenty-four were not allowed to 
shoot at anything under 220 yards, and the most distant 
mark was 380 yards.* 

Few districts in or near London have had such a rapid 
increase of population in late years as this. *' The Merry 
Milkmaid of Islington " would no longer find her way about 
her pleasant pastures. In the time of Charles I., says 
Macaulay, " Islington was almost a solitude, and poets 
loved to contrast its silence and repose with the din and 
turmoil of the monster London." Yet some amongst them 
had a presentiment of the time we have reached when 
London has spread over the whole, and the web of streets 
is woven far beyond Islington. 

" London has got a great way from the streame, 
I think she means to go to Islington, 
To eat a dish of strawberries and creame. 
The city's sure in progresse, I surmise, 
Or going to revell it in some disorder 
Without the walls, without the liberties, 
Where she neede feare nor Mayor nor Recorder." 

ThoTnas Freeman's Epigrams. 1614. 

In old days, as still, the Inns of Islington had a renown. 
One of these, the Queen's Head, pulled down in 1820, was 
a fine old house, said to have been once occupied by the 
Lord Treasurer Burleigh : — 

" The Queen's Head and Crown in Islington town 
Bore, for its brewing, the highest renown." 

Highbury Barn at Islington, which already existed in the 
last century as a popular music-hall, commemorates the 

• Among curious books on archery are the "Ayme for Finsburie Archer*,*' 
1628 ; and the " Ayme for the Archers of St. George's Fields," 1664. 



CANONBURY, 217 

great bam of the Priory of St. John of Clerkenwell. The 
Prior had a country-house here from 1271 to 1371, when 
it was destroyed by Jack Straw. 

If we turn to the left by Sir Hugh Myddelton's statue, 
down Upper Street, on the right is the Church of St Mary^ 
rebuilt in 1 751. In its churchyard George Wharton, son 
of Lord Wharton, and James Stewart, son of Lord Blantyre, 
were buried in one grave by desire of James I. They 
fought over a gambling quarrel in their shirts only (to pre- 
vent suspicion of concealed armour), and both fell mortally 
wounded. 

In Prebend Square, to the east, are the Countess of 
Kent's Almshouses, where Lambe's Chapel, pulled down in 
Cripplegate by the Clothworkers' Company, was re-erected 
in 1874 — 5. It contains the monument, with a curious 
terra-cotta half figure, of William Lambe, the founder, 
1495 — 15S0. He was buried in the crypt church of St 
Faith, under old St. Paul's, with the epitaph — 

" O Lambe of God, which sinne didst take awaye, 
And as a Lambe was offered up for sinne ; 
When I, poor Lambe, went from thy flock astraye ; 
Yet Thou, good Lord, vouchsafe thy Lambe to winne 
Home to thy fold, and hold thy Lambe therein, 
That at the day when lambes and goates shall sever, 
Of thy choice lambes Lambe may be one for ever." 

After following Upper Street for a long distance. Canon- 
bury Lane leads (right) to Canonbury Square and its sur- 
roundings. 

The manor of Canonbury was given to the Priory of 
St. Bartholomew by Ralph de Berners before the time of 
Henry III., and probably obtained its name when the first 



2l8 



WALKS IN LONDON. 



residence of a canon or prior was built here — bury or burg 
meaning " dwelling." Having been rebuilt by Prior Bolton, 
the last Prior but one, it was granted, after the dissolution, 
to Cromwell, Earl of Essex. On his attainder, it reverted 
to the crown, and again on the attainder of the Duke of 
Northumberland, to whom it afterwards fell. It was then 
given by Mary to Thomas, Lord Wentworth, who sold it, in 




Canonbury Tower. 



1570, to the Sir John Spencer whose daughter and heiress 
eloped with the first Earl of Northampton and brought her 
vast property into the Compton family. 

Canonbury is a wonderfully still, quiet, picturesque spot. 
Beyond the modern squares, rises, unaltered, the rugged 
brick tower, called Canonbury Tower, fifty-eight feet high, 
which was probably built by Prior Bolton, though it was 
restored by Sir John Spencer. At the end of the last 



CANONBURY TOWER, 319 

century it was let in lodgings to various literary men who 
resorted thither for economy and the purity of the air. The 
most remarkable of these was Oliver Goldsmith, who 
stayed here with Mr. John Newbury, the publisher of many 
popular children's bocks. Washington Irving says — 



" Oliver Goldsmith, towards the close of 1762, removed to * Merry 
Islington/ then a country village, though now swallowed up in 
omnivorous London. In this neighbourhood he used to take his 
solitary rambles, sometimes extending his walks to the gardens of the 
• White Conduit House,' * so famous among the essayists of the last 
century. While strolling one day in these gardens he met three 
daughters of a respectable tradesman, to whom he was under some 
obligation. With his prompt disposition to oblige, he conducted them 
about the garden, treated them to tea, and ran up a bill in the most 
open-handed manner imaginable. It was only when he came to pay 
that he found himself in one of his old dilemmas. He had not the 
v/herewithal' in his pocket. A scene of perplexity now took place 
between him and the waiter, in the midst of which up came some of 
his acquaintances in whose eyes he wished to stand particularly well. 
When, however, they had enjoyed their banter, the waiter was paid, 
and poor Goldsmith was enabled to carry off the ladies with flying 
colours." — Life of Goldsmith, 



Ephraim Chambers, the author of the Cyclopaedia, was 
one of those who took lodgings here, and here he died in 
the autumn of 1739, and was buried in the cloister of West- 
minster Abbey. The Tower is now let to the " Young 
Men's Christian Association." Several of its old rooms are 
panelled, and are glorious both in colour and in the deli" 
cacy of their carving. 

Behind the Tower is Canonbury Place, where Nos. 6, 
7, 8 were once united as Canonbury House. In No. 6 

• The first cricket cub in London met at the White Conduit House, aud 
Thomas Lord, who established the famous cricket ground, was one of the 
attendants there. 



220 WALKS IN LONDON. 

(now called " Northampton House "), over a doorway, is 
a curious car\'ed and painted coat of arms of " Sir Walter 
Dennys, of Gloucestershire, who was made a knight by 
bathing at the creation of Arthur, Prince of Wales, in 
November, 1489." A passage at the back of the house is 
of Prior Bolton's time, and his famous '^ rebus " forms one 
of the ornaments of a low arched doorway. Ben Jonson 
alludes to " Old Prior BoUon with his bolt and ton." 

In the two neighbouring houses are most magnificent 
stucco ceilings of Sir John Spencer's time, very richly orna- 
mented. Some of them belonged to a great banqueting 
hall, ninety feet long, now divided between the two houses. 
The initials E. R. for Queen EHzabeth, who is said to have 
stayed here between her accession and her coronation, 
appear amongst the ornaments. Three splendid chimney- 
pieces were removed by the late Lord Northampton to 
Castle Ashby and Compton Winyates. 

We may, if we like, return to the west end of London 
through the miserable modern streets of Fentofivllle, a 
district of Clerkenwell which takes its name from Henry 
Penton, member for Winchester, who died in 1812. The 
Pentonville Model Prison, with cells for solitary imprison- 
ment, was built 1840 — 42, and is managed on the most 
extravagant footing, with a cost to the country for each 
prisoner of ;^5o annually. 

Kijig's Cross, so called from a miserable statue of 
George IV. which is now removed, was called Battle 
Bridge, from a small bridge over the Fleet, before the 
statue was erected. Some say that a battle was fought 
here between Alfred and the Danes ; others consider this 
to have been the scene of the great battle in a.d. 61, in 



MODERN DISTRICTS. 221 

«vhich the Romans under Paulinus Suetonius gained their 
great victory over the unfortunate Boadicea, and in which 
eighty thousand Britons were put to the sword. 

North-west of King's Cross extends the modern Somers 
Town^ so called from John, first Earl Somers, Lord Chan- 
cellor in the reign of Queen Anne, to whom the estate 
belonged. Farther north is Camden Town, which takes its 
name from the first Earl Camden, who acquired large pro- 
perty here by his marriage with Miss Jeffreys. Farther 
north still is Kentish Town^ a corruption of " Cantilupe 
Town," a name which records its possession by Walter 
de Cantilupe, Bishop of Worcester, 1236 — dd, and St. 
Thomas de Cantilupe, Bishop of Hereford, 1275 — 82. 



CHAPTER VL 

CHEAPSIDE. 

JUST outside St. Paul's Churchyard on the north-east, 
we are in the sanctuary of St. Martin's-le-Grand, 
founded in the reign of Edward the Confessor by 
Ingelric, Earl of Essex, and his brother Girard. It had a 
collegiate church with a Dean and Chapter. When Henry 
VII. built his famous chapel, the estates of St. Martin's 
were conferred upon the Abbey of Westminster for its 
support, and the Abbots of Westminster became Deans of 
St. Martin's. Here the curfew tolled, at the sound of 
which the great gates of the city were shut and every 
wicket closed till sunrise.* The rights of sanctuary filled 
this corner of London with bad characters, who for the 
most part employed themselves in the manufacture of false 
jewellery. "St. Martin's Lace" was made of copper; + 
**St. Martin's beads" became a popular expression, and 
they are alluded to in Hudibras. It is in the sanctuary 
of St. Martin's that Sir Thomas More describes Miles 
Forest, one of the murderers of the princes in the Tower, 
as *' rotting away piecemeal." The privileges of the place 

• Riley, p. 92. t Strype. 



CHEAPSIDE. 223 

were abolished in the reign of James I., to the great advan- 
tage of the Londoners, for— 

" St. Martin's appears to have been a sanctuary for great disorders, 
and a shelter for the lowest sort of people, rogues and ruffians, thieves, 
felons, and murderers. From hence used to rush violent persons, 
committers of riots, robberies, and manslaughters ; hither they brought 
in their preys and stolen goods, and concealed them here, or shared 
and sold them to those that dwelt here. Here were also harboured 
picklocks, counterfeiters of keys and seals, forgers of false evidences, 
such as made counterfeit chains, beads, ouches, plates, copper gilt for 
gold, &c." — Maitland, 

At the crossways near the site of Paul's Cross now stands 
Behnes' Statue of Sir Robert Peel. From this there is one 
of the most characteristic views in London, looking down 
the busy street of Cheapside (or " Market-side," from the 
Saxon word " Chepe," a market). This is the best point 
from which to examine the beauties of the steeple of Bow 
Church, the finest of the fifty- three towers which Wren built 
after the Fire, and in which, though he had more work than 
he could possibly attend to properly, he never failed to 
exhibit the extraordinary variety of his designs. It is a 
square tower (32 ft. 6 in. wide by 83 ft. high) above which 
are four stories averaging 38 ft. each. The first is a square 
belfry with Ionic pilasters, next is a circular peristyle of 
twelve Corinthian columns, third a lantern, fourth a spire, 
the whole height being 235 ft. 

" There is a play of light and shade, a variety of outline, and "an 
elegance of detail, in this, which it would be very difficult to match in 
any other steeple. There is no greater proof of Wren's genius than to 
observe that, after he had set the example, not only has no architect 
since his day surpassed him, but no other modem steeple can compare 
with this, either for beauty of outline or the appropriateness with which 
classical details are applied to so novel a purpose." — Fergusson. 



224 



WALKS IN LONDON. 



No one will look upon Cheapside for the first time with- 
out recalling the famous tale of John Gilpin — 

« Smack went the whip, round went the wheel, 
Were never folk so glad ; 
The stones did rattle underneath 
As if Cheapside were mad." 

Before the time of the Commonwealth, Cheapside, with 
its avenue of stately buildings, and its fountains and statues 
dispersed at intervals down the centre of the street, cannot 
have been unlike the beautiful Maximilian's Strasse of Augs- 
burg. Opposite the entrance of Foster Lane stood " the 
Little Conduit." Then, opposite the entrance of Wood 
Street, rose the beautiful Cheapside Cross, one of the nine 
crosses erected by Edward I. to Queen Eleanor. It was 
gilt all over for the arrival of Charles V. in 1522 ; again for 
the coronation of Henry VIIL and Anne Boleyn ; again for 
the coronation of Edward VL, and again for the arrival of 
the Spanish Philip. In 1581 it was "broken and defaced." 
In 1595 and 1600 it was "fastened and repaired," and it 
was finally destroyed in 1643, when Evelyn went to London 
on May 2 and " saw the furious and zealous people demolish 
that stately cross in Cheapside." * Beyond the cross, at the 
entrance of Poultry, blood '*tlie Great Conduit," where 
Jack Cade beheaded Lord Saye and Sele. It was erected 
early in the thirteenth century, and ever flowing with clear 
rushing waters, supplied from the reservoir where Stratford 
Place now stands, by a pipe 4,752 feet in length, which 
crossed the fields between modern Brook Street and Regent 

• See the curious pamphlets entitled " The Downefall of Dagon, or the taking 
downe of Cheapside Crosse," and "The Pope's Proclamation, or Six Artici^J 
exhibited against Cheapside Crosse, whereby it pleads guilty of high-treason, and 
QUght to be beheaded.* 



CUEAPSIDE. 235 

Street to Piccadilly, and from thence found its way by 
Leicester Fields, the Strand, and Fleet Street, " a remark- 
able work of engineering and the first of its kind in England 
of which we have any knowledge."* The Conduit itself was 
a plain octagonal stone edifice, 45 feet high, surmounted 
by a cupola with a statue of a man blowing a horn on the 
top. It was encircled by a balcony, beneath which were 
figures of those who had interested themselves in laying 
the pipe or erecting the building. Here, on the site of 
many executions, the most beautiful young girls in London, 
standing garland-crowned, prophetically welcomed Anne 
Boleyn. Here also Lady Jane Grey was proclaimed 
queen; and here stood the pillory in which Defoe was 
placed for his second punishment, receiving all the time a 
triumphant ovation from the people. Lastly, at the 
entrance of Poultry, stood "the Standard in Chepe," 
where Stapleton, Bishop of Exeter, was beheaded in the 
time of Edward II. 

During the reigns of the Henrys and Edwards, Cheapside 
was frequently the scene of conflicts between the prentices 
of the different city guilds, in constant rivalry with one 
another. They were always a turbulent set, and in the 
reign of Edward III. Thomas the Fishmonger and another 
were beheaded in Chepe for striking the august person of 
the Lord Mayor himself. The gay prentices of Chepe are 
commemorated by Chaucer in " The Coke's Tale " — 

" A prentis dwelled whilom in our citee — 
At every bridal would he sing and hoppe ; 
He loved bet the taverne than the shoppe — 
For when ther eny riding was in Chepe 
Out of the shoppe thider wold he lepe, 

* The Builder, Sept. i8, 1875. 
VOL. I. Q 



226 IVALICS IN LONDON, 

And til that he had all the sight ysein, 
And danced wel, he wold not come agen.** 

On the left, divided by the great street of St. Martin's le 
Grand, are the buildings of the Post Office. Those on the 
west are from designs of y. Williams, 1873 ; those on the 
east, built 1825 — 29, from designs oi Sir R. Smirke — "who, 
if he never sunk below respectable mediocrity, has as little 
risen above it " * — occupy the site of the famous church and 
sanctuary of St. Martin's. Behind, in Foster Lane, is the 
Church of St. Vedast, one of Wren's rebuildings. The tower 
is peculiar and well-proportioned, and a marked feature in 
London views. Over the west door is a curious allegorical 
bas-relief, representing Religion and Charity. 

Farther down Foster Lane (right) is the great pillared 
front of the Hall of the Goldsmiths' Company, which was 
incorporated by Edward II L in 1327, but had existed as a 
guild from much earlier times. The Hall, rebuilt by 
Hardwicke in 1835, contains one of the most magnificent 
marble staircases in London, leading to broad open galleries 
with pillars of coloured marbles. The Banqueting Hall 
(80 ft. by 40 and 35 high) contains — 

Northcote. George IV. 
Hayter. William IV. 
M, A. Shee. Queen Adelaide. 
Hayter. Queen Victoria. 

In the Committee Room are — 

* Cornelius Jansen (one of the finest works of the master). A noble 
portrait of Sir Hugh Myddelton, 1644 (a goldsmith), who gave the New 
Rivor to London. His hand is resting on a shell. 

A poor portrait of Sir Martin Bowes (1566), the Lord Mayor 

* Quarterly Review, cxc. 



WOOD STREET. 227 

who sold the tombs at Grey Friars, but interesting as having been 
presented to the Company by Faithome the Engraver, as a proof of 
gratitude for having been excused the office of Warden, in conse- 
quence of the losses he had sustained in the defence of Basing House. 
It is evidently a bad copy by Faithome from an original portrait. 

In the Court Dining Room are — 

Allan Ramsay. George III. and Queen Charlotte. 

The adjoining Livery Tea Room contains — 

Hudson (master of Sir J. Reynolds). A very curious picture of 
*'Benn's Club" — a jovial society of Members of the Company (Sir J. 
Rawlinson, Robert Allsop, Edward Ironside, Sir N. Marshall, W. 
Benn, T. Blackford) over whom Benn, a stanch old Jacobite, had 
sufficient influence to force them to go down to his house in the Isle of 
Wight and drink to the success of Prince Charlie. Given 1752. 

The plate of the Goldsmiths' Company is naturally most 
magnificent. It includes the cup bequeathed by Sir Martin 
Bowes, out of which Queen Elizabeth drank at her corona- 
tion. In laying the foundation of this hall, in 1830, a stone 
altar adorned with a figure of Diana was found, confirming 
the tradition that the old St. Paul's was founded near the 
site of a pagan shrine. 

The name of the next turn on the left, Gutter Lane, is a 
corruption of " Guthurun's Lane," from an early owner. 
"The inhabitants of this lane, of old time, were gold- 
beaters." * 

At the entrance of Wood Street, the first large thorough- 
fare opening from Cheapside on the left, is a beautiful Plane- 
tree, marking the churchyard of St. Peter in Chepe, a 
church destroyed in the Fire. The terms of the lease of 
the neighbouring houses forbid the destruction of the tree, 
or the building of an additional story which may injure it 

* Stow. 



228 WALKS IN LONDON. 

The sight of this tree, throwing a reminiscence of country 
loveliness into the crowded thoroughfare, may recall to us 
that Wordsworth has immortalised Wood Street in his 
touching little ballad of " Poor Susan." 

" At the comer of Wood Street, when daylight appears, 
Hangs a thrush that sings loud, it has sung for three years ; 
Poor Susan has passed by the spot, and has heard 
In the silence of morning the song of the bird. 

*Tis a note of enchantment ; what ails her ? she sees 
A mountain ascending, a vision of trees ; 
Bright volumes of vapour through Lothbury glide, 
And a river flows on through the vale of Cheapside. 

Green pastures she views in the midst of the dale, 
Down which she so often has tripped with her pail ; 
And a single small cottage, a nest like a dove's. 
The one only dwelling on earth that she loves. 

She looks, and her heart is in heaven ; but they fade, 
The mist and the river, the hill and the shade ; 
The stream will not flow and the hiU will not rise. 
And the colours have all passed away from her eyes." 

It is said that in the Church of St. Michael^ Wood 
Street^ rebuilt by Wren after the Fire, and rather picturesque 
with its projecting clock, is buried the head of James IV. of 
Scotland, the king who fell at Flodden, and whose body was 
recognised by Lord Dacre and others amongst the slain on 
the field of battle. The account which Stow gives of the 
after-adventures of the head is too curious to omit. 

" After the Battle of Flodden, the body of King James being found, 
was enclosed in lead, and conveyed from thence to London, and so to 
the monastery of Shene in Surrey where it remained for a time, in what 
order I am not certain ; but since the dissolution of that house in the reign 
of Edward IV., Henry Grey, Duke of Suffolk, being lodged and keeping 
house there, I have been shown the same body so lapped in lead, close 
to the head and body, thrown into a waste room amongst the old 
timber, lead, and other nibble. Since which time, workmen there, 



WOOD STREET. 229 

for their foolish pleasure, hewed off his head ; and Lancelot Young, 
master-glazier to her Majesty, feeling a sweet savour to come from 
thence, and seeing the same dried from all moisture, and yet the form 
remaining, with the hair of the head, and the beard red, brought it to 
London, to his house in Wood Street, where for a time he kept it for 
its sweetness, but in the end caused the sexton of that church to bury 
it amongst other bones taken out of then chamel." — Stow, p, 112. 

Scotch writers maintain, however, that it was not the 
body of James IV. which was found at Flodden, but of 
another who fought in his dress to withdraw the attention of 
bhe English ; and it is even asserted that the king escaped 
to Jerusalem, and died there. 

The paltry semi-gothic Church of St. Alban^ Wood Street^ 
was built by Wren, 1684-5, ^^ the place of one by Inigo 
Jones. The original church belonged to St. Alban's Abbey. 
Amongst the monuments lost with the old church is that 

inscribed — 

"Htcj'acetTovci Short -hose 
Sine tombe, sine sheets, sine riches ; 
Qui Tixit sine gowne, 
Sine cloake, sine shirt, sitie breeches.** 

Attached to the pillar above the pulpit is an hourglass in 
a curious brass frame. These hourglasses, common enough 
in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries to remind the 
preacher of the flight of time, are now very rare. 

Matthew Paris says that St. Alban's, Wood Street, was 
the chapel of King Offa.^ There is also a tradition that at 
the end of the street was the palace of the victorious Saxon 
king Athelstan, who slew the last king of Cumberland, 
buried on the pass between Keswick and Grassmere, under 
the great cairn which is still called from him " Dunmail 
Raise." Thus the name of Addie Street y which opens on 

* In Vitis Abb. S. Albani. p. 50 



230 WALKS IN LONDON, 

the right of Wood Street, is said to be derived from Adelstan 
or Athelstan, indeed it is found as King Adel Street in 
early records, but the derivation comes more probably from 
the Saxon word adel — noble — " the street of nobles." In 
this street, near its junction with Aldermanbury, is the Hall 
of the Brewers' Company (incorporated by Henry VI.), an 
admirable modern building of brick (1876), with terra-cotta 
ornaments, in which hops are much used in the decorations. 

To the west of Wood Street, in Maiden Lane, is the Hall 
of the Haberdashers' Company, mcovporsited 26th Henry VI. 

On the south of Cheapside, between Bread Street and 
Friday Street, stood the Mermaid Tavern, where a club, 
established by Ben Jonson in 1603, numbered Shakspeare, 
Beaumont, Fletcher, Donne, Selden, &c., amongst its 

members. 

" What things have seen 
Done at the Mermaid ; heard words that have been 
So nimble, and so full of subtle flame, 
A? if that every one from whom they came 
Had mean'd to put his whole wit in a jest, 
And had resolv'd to live a fool the rest 
OfhisduUlife." 

Beaumont to Jonson. 

Stow says that Friday Street derives its name "from 
Fishmongers dwelling there and serving Friday's market." 
Sir Hugh Myddelton was buried in the churchyard of 
St. Matthew, Friday Street, in 1631. 

At the north-east corner of this street was the celebrated 
Nag's Head Tavern, the fictitious scene of the consecration 
of Protestant bishops, on the accession of Elizabeth in 
1559. 

" It was pretended (hat a certain number of ecclesiastics, in hiirry to 



ALDERMANBUR K 23 1 

take possession of the vacant sees, assembled here, where they were to 
undergo the ceremony from Anthony Kitchen, aUas Dunstan, Bishop of 
LlandafF, a sort of occasional Nonconformist, who had taken the oaths 
of supremacy to Elizabeth. Bonner, Bishop of London (then confined 
in prison), hearing of it, sent his chaplain to Kitchen, threatening him 
with excommunication in case he proceeded. On this the prelate 
refused to perform the ceremony, on which, say the Cathohcs, Parker 
and the other candidates, rather than defer possession of their sees, 
determined to consecrate one another, which, says the story, they did 
without any sort of scruple, and Scorey began with Parker, who 
instantly rose Archbishop of Canteibury. The refutation of this tale 
may be read in Strype's Life of Archbishop Parker." — Pennant, 

The next turn on the left is Milk Street^ once devoted to 
sellers of milk, where Sir Thomas More was born in 1480, 
" the brightest star," says Fuller, " that ever shone in that 
Via Lactea." On the right of the street is the City oj 
London School^ established 1835, ^'^^ ^^ education of boys 
of the middle-classes recommended by a member of the 
Corporation of London. 

[Milk Street leads into Aldermanbury^ so called from the 
ancient court or bery of the Aldermen,* now held at the 
Guildhall.* Here (left) is Wren's Jacobian Church of St, 
Mary Aldermanbury, In the old church on this site Dr. 
John Owen, the chaplain of Cromwell, listened to the 
sermon which was the cause of his strong religious im- 
pressions. Edmund Calamy was appointed rector here 
in 1639, and v/as ejected by the Act of Uniformity in 1662, 
after he had attracted great crowds to the church by his 
sermons. He died four years after and is buried beneath 
the pulpit. George, Lord Jeffreys, the cruel judge of the 
bloody Assizes, who died in the Tower in 1689, was 
removed from the Tower Chapel, November 2, 1693, and 

* Stow. 



232 WALKS IN LONDON. 

is buried here on the north of the communion table. The 
register lecords the marriage (Nov. 12, 1656) of Milton 
with his second wife Catherine Woodcocke, a native of this 
parish, who died fifteen months after. Weever mentions 
(1631) that in the cloister of this church hung " the shank- 
bone of a man, wondrous great and large, measuring 
twenty-eight inches and a half, with the portrait of a giant- 
like person and some metrical lines." 

Gresham Street has swallowed up Lad Lane. At the 
corner of Gresham Street and Aldermanbury, " the Swan 
with two Necks" on the wall of a General Railway Office 
marks the site of the curious old balconied inn of that 
name, which was long celebrated as a starting-point for 
stage-coaches.] 

We have now arrived where, on the right of Cheap- 
side, rises St, Mary Le Bow, It was built by Wren on 
the site of a very ancient church described by Stow as 
having been the first church in the city built on arches of 
stone, whence in the reign of WilHam the Conqueror it was 
called " St. Marie de Arcubus or Le Bow in West Cheaping ; 
as Stratford Bridge, being the first built (by Matilde the 
queen, wife to Henry L) with arches of stone, was called 
Stratford le Bow ; which names to the said church and 
bridge remain to this day.'* A staircase in the porch leads 
to the Norman O7// which was used by Wren as a support for 
his church. Some of the columns have been partially walled 
up to strengthen the upper building, but the crypt is of great 
extent, and in one part the noble Norman pillars are seen 
in theii full beauty, with the arches above, which have 
given tha name of " Court of Arches " to the highest eccle- 
siastical court belonging to the Archbishop of Canterbury, 



ST, MARY LE BOW, 233 

which fonnerly met in the vestry of this church. It is 
the chief of a deanery of thirteen parishes, exempt from the 
jurisdiction of the Bishop of London : hence the title of 
the Dean of Arches. The Bishops elect of the province of 
Canterbury take the oath of supremacy at this church before 
their consecration. 

On the right of the altar is a monument to Thomas 
Newton, Dean of St. Paul's and Bishop of Bristol (1782), 
with the inscription — " Reader, if you would be further 
informed of his character, acquaint yourself with his 
writings." 

The steeple of Bow Church, 235 feet in height, is, as we 
have seen, one of Wren's best and most original works. 
Bow bells have always been famous, and people born with- 
in sound of Bow bells are called Cockneys. Pope says — 

** Far as loud Bow's stupendous bells resound." 

Stow tells how in 1469 it was ordained by a Common 
Council that the Bow Bell should be nightly rung at nine of 
the clock. This bell (which marked the time for closing 
the shops) being usually rung somewhat late, as seemed to 
the young men, prentices, and others in Cheap, they made 
and set up a rhyme against the clock as folio weth : — 

" Gierke of the Bow Bell, with the yellow lockes. 
For thy late ringing thy head shall have knockes." 

Whereunto the Clerk replying wrote : 

** Children of Cheape, hold you all still, 
For you shall have the Bow BeU rung at your will." 

What child will not remember that it was the Bow Bells 



234 WALKS IN LONDON. 

which said to the poor runaway boy as he was resting on 

Highgate milestone — 

*' Turn again, Wtittington, 
Lord Mayor of London," 

and that he obeyed them, and became the most famous of 
Lord Mayors ? 

Many last century writers have celebrated the Dragon on 
Bow Steeple — a familiar landmark to Londoners. 

** Dean Swift said, more than one hundred years ago, * that when the 
dragon on Bow Church kisses the cock behind the Exchange, great 
changes will take place in England.* 

"Just before the Reform Bill of 1832, the dragon and cock were 
both taken down at the same time to be cleaned and repaired by the 
same man, and were placed close to each other. In fact, the dragon 
kissed the cock, and the Reform Bill was passed. Who can say there 
is no virtue in predictions after this ? " — B. R. Hay don? s Table Talk. 

Stow says that this church, " for divers accidents hap- 
pening there, hath been made more famous than any other 
parish church of the whole city or suburbs." It was in the 
tower of the old church, built on the existing arches, that 
William Fitz-Osbert, surnamed Longbeard, the champion of 
the wrongs of the people in the time of Richard I., took 
refuge from his assassins ; but, after defending it for three 
days, was forced out by fire, when he was dragged at the 
tail of a horse to the Tower, and sentenced by the arch- 
bishop to be hung, which was done in Smithfield. In the 
same tower was slain, in 1284, one Laurence Ducket, who 
had taken sanctuary there after wounding Ralph Crepin, 
for which, says Stow, sixteen persons were hung, a woman 
named Alice burnt, many rich persons "hanged by the 
purse," the church interdicted, and the doors and windows 
filled with thorns, till it was purified again. 



ST. LAWRENCE JEWRY, 235 

The balcony m front of the tower is a memorial of the 
old Seldam, or stone shed, erected on the north side of this 
church, whither the Henrys and Edwards came to survey all 
the great city pageants. A plot was discovered with the 
design of murdering Charles II. and the Duke of York on 
this very balcony during a Lord Mayor's procession. It 
was from hence that Queen Anne, in 1702, beheld the 
last Lord Mayor's pageant, devised by the last city poet 
Elkanah Settle. 

King Street (on the left) now leads to the Guildhall. 
Before its principal front the city pigeons are fed every 
morning, as those of Venice are in the Piazza S. Marco, 
and the smoky buildings are enlivened by the perpetual 
flitting to and fro of their bright wings. The pretty modem 
Gothic Fountain here (1866), adorned with statues of St. 
Lawrence and the Magdalen, commemorates the benefactors 
of St. Lawrence Jewry, and St. Mary Magdalen, Milk 
Street. The adjoining Church of St. Lawrence Jewry cost 
;£i 1,870, being the most expensive of all the city churches 
rebuilt by Wren. It is richly decorated internally, but 
devoid of beauty. The gridiron which serves as a vane 
on the spire commemorates the death of St. Lawrence. 
There is a monument here to Archbishop Tillotson (1694). 

" He was buried in the Church of St. Lawrence Jewry. It was there 
that he had won his immense national reputation. He had preached 
there during the thirty years which preceded his elevation to the throne 
of Canterbury. . . His remains were carried through a mourning 
population. The hearse was followed by an endless train of splendid 
equipages from Lambeth through Southwark and over London bridge. 
Burnet preached the funeral sermon. His kind and honest heart was 
overcome by so many tender recollections that, in the midst of his 
discourse, he paused and burst into tears, whUe a loud moan of sorrow 
arose from the whole auditory. The Queen (Mary) could not speak of 



236 



WALKS IN LONDON. 



her favourite instructor without weeping. Even William was visibly 
moved. 'I have lost,' he said, 'the best friend that I ever had, and 
the best man that I ever knew.' " — Macaulay. History of England. 

Wilkins, Bishop of Chester, the mathematician, is also 
buried here, with Sir Geoffry Boleyne of Blickling, Lord 




Fountain of St. Lawrence. 



Mayor of London, ob. 1463, great-great-grandfather of 
Queen Elizabeth. The words now thus, in brass, were 
dispersed thirty-two times over his gravestone.* 

The Guildhall was originally built in the time of 
Henry IV. (1411), but it has been so much altered 
that, though the walls were not much injured in the Fire 

* See Stow, and Gough's " Sepulchral Monuments." 



THE GUILDHALL. 237 

and only had to be reroofed, very little can be said to 
remain visible of that time except the crypt. The front, 
by George Dance, is a miserable work of 1789. 

Here it was that, after the death of Edward IV., while 
his sons were in the Tower, on June 22, 1483, the Duke of 
Buckingham addressed the people, and after cunningly 
dwelling on the exactions of the late king's reign, denied 
his legitimacy, and, affirming that the Duke of Gloucester 
was the only true son of the Duke of York, demanded that 
he should be acknowledged as king. 

In 1546 the Guildhall was used for the trial of Anne, 
daughter of Sir William Askew of Kelsey in Lincolnshire, 
who had been turned out of doors by her husband (one 
Kyme) because she had become a Protestant. Coming to 
London, to sue for a separation, she had been kindly 
received by Queen Katherine Parr, and was found to have 
distributed Protestant tracts amongst the court ladies. In 
the Guildhall she was tried for heresy, and on being asked 
by the Lord Mayor why she refused to believe that the 
priest could make the body of Christ, gave her famous 
answer — " I have heard that God made man, but that man 
can make God I have never heard." She was afterwards 
cruelly tortured on the rack to extort evidence against the 
court ladies, and on July 16, 1546, was burnt at Smithfield. 

It was also in the Guildhall that the Protestant Sir 
Nicholas Throckmorton, a personal friend of Edward VI., 
was tried, April 17, 1554, for participation in the Wyatt 
rebellion against Mary, and was acquitted by his own 
wonderful acuteness and presence of mind. 

Here, on the other side, in 1606, took place the trial of 
Garnet, Superior of the Jesuits in England. He had been 



238 WALKS IN LONDON, 

arrested at Hendlip House near Worcester for complicity 
in the Gunpowder Plot. The rack having failed to extort 
a confession, he was induced to believe, whilst imprisoned 
in the Tower, that he might confer unheard with another 
Jesuit, Oldcorr^e, who occupied the next cell. Two listeners 
wrote down the whole conversation, which was produced as 
criminatory evidence at the Guildhall, and he was con- 
demned to death and executed in St. Paul's Churchyard, 
after which he was honoured by Catholics as a martyr. 

Among the other trials which have taken place here, have 
been that of the poet Surrey, in the time of Henry VIII., 
and of the poet Waller, during the Commonwealth. 

The Guildhall (152 ft. long, 50 ft. broad) has a glorious 
timber roof and vast stained windows of modern glass, 
through which streams of coloured light fall in prismatic rays 
upon the pavement. High aloft at the western extremity the 
giants Gog and Magog, which used to bear a conspicuous 
part in the pageant of Lord Mayor's Day, keep guard over 
the hall, and still look, as Hawthorne says, " like enormous 
playthings for the children of giants." They were carved in 
fir-wood by one Richard Saunders, and are hollow. Being 
presented to the Corporation by the Stationers' Company, 
they were set up in the Hall in 1708, and typify the dignity 
of the City. There is an old prophecy of Mother Shipton 
which says that "when they fall, London will fall also." 
In 1 741 one Richard Boreman, who lived "near the Giants 
in the Guildhall," published their history, which tells how 
Corineus and Gogmagog fought with all the other giants in 
behalf of the liberties of the City, and how all the other 
giants perished, but these two were reserved that they 
might make sport by wrestling like gladiators with one 



THE GUILDHALL. 339 

another — and how the victory seemed to incline to Gog- 
magog, who pressed his companion so heavily that he broke 
three of his ribs ; but at last, in his desperation, Corineus 
threw Gogmagog over his shoulder and hurled him from the 
top of a cliff into the sea, which cliff is called Langoemagog, 
or " the Giant's Leap." The four huge and ugly monu- 
ments against the lower walls of the Hall are only inter- 
esting from their inscriptions. That of Lord Chatham is 
by Burke, that of Pitt by Canning, that of Nelson by 
Sheridan, while that of Beckford is engraved with the 
speech with which he is said to have abruptly astonished 
George III., and which, says Horace Walpole, "made the 
king uncertain whether to sit still and silent, or to pick up 
his robes and hurry into his private room." The speech, 
however, was never really uttered, and was written by 
Home Tooke. 

Amongst the rooms adjoining the Guildhall is the Alder- 
man's Court, a beautiful old chamber richly adorned with 
carving, and allegorical paintings by Sir James Thornhill. 
It is a room well deserving of preservation, having been 
rebuilt by Wren immediately after the Fire, and originally 
built in 1614. 

The Common Council Chamber contains a fine statue 01 
George III. by Chantrey. At the east end of the chamber 
is an enormous picture of the Siege of Gibraltar, Sept., 1782, 
with Lord Heathfield on horseback in the foreground, by 
Copley. Of the other pictures we may notice — 

Alderman Boydell, a fine portrait, by Beec/iey. 

Lord Nelson. Beechey. 

The Murder of Rizzio. Opie. 

The Death of Wat Tyler. Northcote. 



240 WALKS IN LONDON, 

Queen CaroKne of Brunswick. Lonsdale, 
Queen Victoria. Hayter. 
Princess Charlotte. Lonsdale. 

The Court of the Old King's Bench has remains of a 
Gothic chamber of 1425. It contains a noble picture of 
Charles Pratt, Lord Chancellor Camden, painted for the 
City in honour of his speech on the discharge of Wilkes 
from the Tower, by Sir /. Reynolds. The beautiful chapel 
of St, Mary Magdalen, adjoining the Guildhall, built c. 1299 
and rebuilt 143 1, was pulled down in 1822, up to which 
time, **to deprecate indigestion and all plethoric evils," 
says Pennant, a service was held in it before the Lord 
Mayor's feast. Its site is now occupied by the ugly court- 
rooms on the east of the Guildhall Yard, which are deco- 
rated with portraits by Michael Wright of all the judges 
who sate at Clifford's Inn to arrange the differences between 
landlord and tenant during the process of rebuilding after 
the great Fire.* 

No one should omit to visit, by a staircase at the back 
of the Hall, the beautiful Crypt of 141 1, which survived 
the Fire. It is divided ir.to three aisles by six clusters of 
circular columns of Purbeck marble, and is 75 feet in length 
and 45 in breadth. Maitland (1789) mentions it as "the 
Welsh Hall," because the Welsh were at that time allowed 
to use it as a market for their native manufactures. 

From the east end of the Guildhall a staircase leads to 
the Library. On the landing at the top are statues of 
Charles II. and Sir John Cutler, brought from the de- 
molished College of Physicians in Warwick Lane. The 

• The Alderman's Court and the interesting pictures in the chambers adjoining 
the Guildhall may be seen upon application, when the rooms are not io use. 



THE GUILDHALL. 



24T 



society had thought themselves obhged to Sir John for the 
money to raise their college, when that in Amen Corner 
was burnt in 1666, but after the statue was erected in 
gratitude, " the old curmudgeon made a demand of the 
pelf," which the society was obliged to refund to his heirs.'" 
The handsome modern Gobhic Library contains a very 
valuable collection of books — old plays, ballads, and pam- 




In the Crypt of the Guildhall. 



phlets, relating to the history of London. The full-length 
portraits of William III. and Mary II. are by Vander 
Vaart. In a room on the right of the side entrance is a 
valuable collection of drawings of Old London and of New 
London Bridge. 

The City Museum, in a vaulted chamber, is open from to 

* Tom Brown, "The New London Spy," 1777. 
VOL. I. R 



842 WALKS IN LONDON, 

to 4 in winter, and from lo to 5 in summer. It contains a 
collection of interesting relics of Old London, including — 

The Inscription about the Fire, from Pudding Lane. 

The painted Statue of Gerard the Giant, from Gerard's Hall in 
Basing Lane, destroyed in 1852. 

Roman pavement found at Bucklersbury, 1869. 

The Foundation Stones of Old London Bridge and Old Blackfriars 
Bridge. 

A number of curious old London Signs — St. George and the Dragon 
from Snow Hill ; the Three Crowns from Lambeth Hill ; and the 
Thi-ee Kings (Magi) from Bucklersbury. Here also is the famous Sign 
of the Boar's Head, erected in 1668, when the house was rebuilt after 
the Fire, to mark the tavern in East Cheap, the abode of Dame 
Quickly, " the old place in Eastcheap," * beloved by FalstafF. Wash- 
ington Irving describes how, having hunted in vain for the tavern, 
he found the sign " built into the parting line of two houses " which 
stood on its site. 

An old Chimney-Piece from Lime Street, from the house of Sir J. 
Scrope {ob. 1493), rebuilt in the 17th century, where Sir J. Abney kept 
his mayoralty, 1700, 1701. 

Returning to Cheapside, Queen Street, on the right, was 
formerly Soper Lane, from the makers of soap who inhabited 
it. After the Fire it became the resort of the " Pepperers," 
i.e. wholesale dealers in drugs and spices. On the right of 
Queen Street opens Pancras Lane, containing a precious 
little oasis which was the burial-ground of that old church 
of which William Sautre, the proto-martyr of the English 
Reformation, burnt March 10, 1401, was priest. 

The Saddlers' Hall in Cheapside contains a full-length 
portrait of Frederick, Prince of Wales, who was a saddler, 
by Frye, 

At the corner of Iroiimonger Lane, No. 90 Cheapside, 
was the engraver's shop of Alderman Boydell, celebrated 

» Henry IV., Act ii. sc. t. 



THE MERCERS' HALL. 243 

for his Pictorial Shakspeare. The part of Cheapside 
between Ironmonger Lane and Old Jewry was called " the 
Mercery " from the Mercers' Hall, entered from Ironmonger 
Lane. The quaint pillared court, which recalls those of 
Genoa, was used as a burial-place as late as 1825. It 
contains the effigy, recumbent in a niche, of " Richard 
Fishborne, mercer, a worthy benefactor, 1625," and other 
monuments. Here, "in the porch of the Mercers* Chapel," 
Thomas Guy, founder of Guy's Hospital, was bound 
apprentice to a bookseller, Sept. 2, 1660. The Mercers^ 
Chapel and its portico occupy the site of the house of 
Gilbert k Becket, in which his son Thomas, the mur- 
dered archbishop, was born in 11 19. Twenty years after 
his murder, Agnes his sister, who was married to Thomas 
Fitz Theobald de Helles, built a chapel and hospital 
" in the rule of Saynt Austyn " on the spot where her 
brother was born; and such was the respect for his 
sanctity that, without waiting for his canonisation, the 
foundation was dedicated to the worship of God Almighty, 
and the Blessed Virgin Mary, and of the said glorious 
Martyr. " Alle the lande that sometime was Gilbert 
Becket's, father of Thomas the Martyr," was granted to 
this hospital* James Butler, Earl of Ormond (1428), and 
Dame Joane his wife (1430), who claimed near alliance to 
St. Thomas, were buried here : t their daughter Margaret 
mairied Sir William Boleyne, and was grandmother of Queen 
Anne Boleyn. A beautiful side chapel was added to this 
church by John Allen, Lord Mayor, who died in 1544. 
There is a well-known legend that Gilbert k Becket was 

• See Herbert's " History of the Twelve Great Livery Companies." 

♦ Weever's " Funeral Monuments." 



244 WALKS JN LONDON. 

taken prisoner during the Crusades, and was liberated by a 
Saracen princess who had fallen in love with him. The 
power of her love induced her to follow him to England, 
though she only knew two words of the language — London 
and Gilbert. By the help of the first she reached his 
native town, and she plaintively called the other through the 
streets till she was reunited to him. Unfortunately this 
story is unknown to the earlier biographers of Thomas k 
Becket, but the name Aeon, or Acre, recalls the memory of 
William, an Englishman, chaplain to Dean Ralph le Diceto, 
who made a vow that if he could enter Acre, then under 
siege, he would found a chapel to the martyred archbishop, 
who was already reverenced, though not formally recog- 
nised, as a saint. He entered Acre and founded a chapel 
and a cemetery there, where he devoted himself to the 
burial of Christian pilgrims, who died in the Holy Land. 
A military order was also founded by Richard I., in com- 
memoration of the capture of Acre, and dedicated to St. 
Thomas.* 

Latimer mentions the woman " who, being asked by an 
acquaintance in the street where she was going, answered 
* To St. Thomas of Acres, to hear the sermon ; for as she 
had not slept well the night before, she should be certain 
of a nap there.' " f 

At the Dissolution, Henry VIH. granted the Hospital, 
for a payment, to the Mercers' Company, incorporated in 
1393. The Ha 11^ rebuilt after the Great Fire hy Jarman, 
has good oak carving of that period : the helmet and 
sword of Lord Hill, a member of the Company, are pre- 

* See Milman's " Annals of St. Paul's." 
i Malcolm's " Manners of London." 



THE MERCERS' HALL, 245 

served there. In the adjoining Court-room are some good 
portraits, including that of Sir R. Whittington and his cat, 
inscribed "R. Whittington. 1536." 

A story similar to that of Whittington and his Cat has 
existed in South America, Persia, Denmark, Tuscany, and 
Venice, and in several of these instances may be traced 
before and at the date of Whittington.* Up to the time of 
Whittington the burning of coal in London was considered 
such a nuisance that it was punished by death. A dispen- 
sation to bum coal was first made in favour of the four 
times Lord Mayor, and it is believed that the fact that his 
coal was imported in the collier (catta) still called a cat, 
gave rise to the story in his case. Here also are — 

Sir Thomas Gresham, said to be an original portrait. 

Dean Colet (whose father was a mercer), the founder of St. Paul's 
School, the management of which he bequeathed to the Mercers. 

A fine portrait of Thomas Papillon, 1666, who represented Dover in 
several parhaments. He was chosen sheriff for London by an immense 
majority of the citizens, but the Lord Mayor would not swear him in, 
Charles 11. 's government having chosen their own sheriffs. Papillon 
issued his warrant to compel Sir W. Pritchard, the Mayor, to do his 
duty. For this he was brought to a state trial, condemned by Judge 
Jeffreys, and sentenced to pay a fine of ;!^io,ooo. To avoid this he went 
into voluntary banishment at Utrecht, but returning with William III., 
was elected member for London, and bought the estate of Acrise in 
Kent. 

" Dick WTiittington," four times Lord Mayor of London, 
was a Mercer, *' Flos Mercatorum," and is commemorated 
by the Whittington Almshouses, which belong to the Com- 
pany, and by a silver Tun on wheels which he presented for 
their banquets. At least sixty of the Mercers have filled 
the office of Lord Mayor. 

The last street on the left of Cheapside is Old Jewry ^ 

• See J. Timbs' " Komance of London." 



246 WALKS IN LONDON. 

once inhabited wholly by Jews brought over from Rouen 
by William I. It contains St, Olavis Churchy one of the 
many churches dedicated to the royal Danish saint, and 
recalling the Danish occupation. Alderman John Boydell, 
the engraver (1814), is buried here. Dr. James Foster 
became celebrated in Old Jewry as a preacher in the last 
century, having first become known from Lord Chancellor 
Hardwicke taking refuge from a storm in his church, and 
being so delighted that he afterwards sent all his great 
acquaintance to hear him. He is celebrated by Pope — 

" Let modest Foster, if he will, excel 
Ten Metropolitans in preachiag well." 

The house of Sir Robert Clayton ("the fanatick Lord 
Mayor" of Dryden's "Religio Laici ") on the east side 
of Old Jewry — a grand specimen of a merchant's resi- 
dence, with " a banqueting room wainscoted with cedar 
and adorned with battles of gods and giants in fiesco," * in 
which Charles 11. supped with the great city magnate — was 
only destroyed in 1863. Here Professor Porson died in 
1808. Old Jewry was the place where the original syna- 
gogue of the Jews was erected, and was their head-quarters 
till their expulsion in 1291. 

[The street called Old Jewry leads into Coleman Street, 
which contains the Wool Exchange, and where the ghastly 
gate of St, Stephen's Churchyard, adorned with skulls, 
commemorates its having been one of the principal places 
of burial for the victims of the Great Plague. Over the gate 
IS a curious carving in oak, representing the Last Judgment, 
much like that over the gate of St. Giles in the Fields, but 

* Macaulay. 



THE ARMOURERS* HALL, 247 

euperior in workmanship. This and the gate of St. Olave'a 
Hart Street are now the only memorials which recall to us 
the terrible year of the Plague (1665), in which 68,596 
persons perished; when these old City-streets resounded 
perpetually with the cry " Bring out your dead ! " from the 
carriers in the gloomy gowns which were their appointed 
costume; and when even the terror? of infection did not save 
the unfortunate bodies from the " corpse robbers," as many 
as 1,000 winding-sheets being afterwards found in the 
possession of one night thief alone. De Foe describes 
how John Hayward the sexton of this church used to go 
round with his dead-cart and bell to fetch the bodies from 
the houses where they lay, and how often he had to carry 
them for a great distance to the cart in a hand-barrow, as 
the lanes of the parish, White's Alley, Cross Key Court, 
Swan Alley, and others were so narrow that the cart could 
not enter them, — yet " never had the distemper at all, but 
lived about twenty years after it." In St. Stephen's Churchy 
rebuilt by Wren after the Fire,* is the monument of Anthony 
Munday, dramatist and architect of civic pageants. 

In Great Bell Alley^ on the right of Coleman Street, 
Robert Bloomfield, the especial poet of the country, son of 
a tailor at Honington, in Suffolk, composed mentally his 
poem of the " Farmer's Boy," while working in a garret as 
a shoemaker. When able to procure paper, he had, as he 
says, " nothing to do but to write it down." 26,000 copies 
were sold in three years. 

Far down Coleman Street, on the right, is the Hall of 
the Armourers' Company founded by Henry VI. as the 
** Brothers and Sisters of the Gild of St. George," whose 

• St. Stephen's only cost £7,6^2 13*., while Bow Church cost £i$,^of>. 



248 WALKS IN LONDON. 

effigy, slaying the dragon, appeared upon their seal before 
1453. The Hall has been rebuilt, but has occupied the 
same site for five hundred years, and, as it escaped the 
Fire, it possesses one of the most glorious collections of 
old plate in England. Especially noteworthy are the 
beautiful " Richmond Cup," given by John and Isabel 
Richmond in 1557; the curious "Owl Pot," given by 
Julian Seger in 1537 ; the tankard of Thomas Tyndale, 
1574; the cup and cover of J. Forester, 1622; the cup 
and cover of Samson Lycroft, 1608 ; and the Maeser (maple 
wood) bowl of 1460. 

At the foot of the staircase are suits of armour of an 
officer and pikeman of the time of Charles I. Armour was 
then going out of use, and, by the time of William III., 
the Company had fallen into utter decadence, but entirely 
revived after its union under Anne with the Company 
of Braziers, since which " We are One " has been the 
motto of the united companies ; " Make all sure," the earlier 
motto of the Armourers, having had reference to the 
proving of their back and breast pieces. 

In the Hall are a beautiful steel tilting suit of the time of 
Edward VI. ; some German swords with waved edges 
of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries ; some Flemish 
pictures representing the meat and vegetables of the Four 
Seasons from the old Treaty House at Uxbridge; and 
Northcote's well-known picture of the entry of Bolingbroke 
into London with Richard II., engraved in Boydell's 
Shakspeare. 

The Private Dining Room contains — 

A curious portrait of Roger Tindall, Master of the Company, 1585, 
being his " counterfeit," especially bequeathed by his will, inscribed — 



COULTRY. 249 

Tyme glides away, 
One God obey, 
Let Trvth bear sway, 
So Tindal still did say. 
Wliatsoever thou dost, mark thy end. 
Miller. Romeo's first meeting with Juliet, as a pilgrim in the hall 
of the Capulets. 

A grant to the Company by Mary I., in which the then Claiencieux 
King-at-Arms appears in an illumination. 

In the Drawing Room are — 

Hamilton. Olivia as a page (in Twelfth Night) meeting Sebastian. 
Engraved in Boydell's Shakspeare. 

Shackleton. George II. and Caroline of Anspach. 

The forbidden Tilting Gauntlet (a great curiosity), suppressed as 
unfair, because it locked down, and the tilting spear could not be 
wrested from a hand th;is protected.] 

Cheapside now melts into Poultry,^ once entirely in- 
habited by Poulterers. In the old church of St. Mildred 
in the Poultry, dedicated to the daughter of the Saxon 
prince Merowald, destroyed in the Fire, was the tomb of 
Thomas Tusser (1580), author of "Five Hundred Points 
of Good Husbandry," described by Fuller as " successively 
a musician, schoolmaster, servingman, husbandman, grazier, 
poet, more skilful in all, than thriving in any vocation," 
His epitaph ran — 

" Here Thomas Tusser, clad in earth, doth lie, 
That sometime made the points of husbandrie. 
By him then learn thou maist ; here learn we must, 
When aU is done we sleep and turn to dust. 
And yet through Christ to heaven we hope to goe, 
Who reads his books shall find his faith was so." 

The church was rebuilt by Wren, but has been recently 
pulled down and its monuments removed to St. Olave's, 

• The name existed in 1317. 



250 WALKS IN LONDON, 

Old Jewry. Its site is now occupied by the offices of the 
Gresham Life Insurance Company. 

Several good modern buildings adorn Poultry. No. i, 
" Queen Anne Chambers," is a good specimen of the archi- 
tecture of that time by Messrs. Belcher. A little farther 
(right) the rich front of a house (No. 14), built by Chancellor 
in 1875, has terra-cotta panels by Kremer^ appropriately 
representing the state-processions of Edward VI., Eliza- 
beth, and Victoria, which have passed through the street 
below in 1546, 1551, and 1844, with an incident which 
occurred upon the site of this very house on May 29, 1660, 
when Charles II., making his pubHc entry into London, 
stopped to salute the landlady of what was then an inn, 
who insisted upon displaying her loyalty by rising to give 
him a welcome, though she was then in a most critical 
situation ! 

Bucklersbury^ the last street on the right, derives its name 
from the Bukerels, a great City family of the thirteenth 
century.* Andrew Bukerel, Pepperer, was Lord Mayor 
from 1 231 to 1237, and held the office of farmer of the 
King's Exchange : he headed the equestrian procession 
of the citizens of London at the coronation of Eleanor of 
Provence. This was the great street of grocers and drug- 
gists ; Shakspeare speaks of those who " smell like Buck- 
lersbury in simple time," in the Merry Wives of Windsor, 

The end of Poultry faces the Royal Exchange, with Chan- 
trey's fine equestrian Statue of Wellington in front of it. 
On the right is the Mansion House, on the left the Bank of 
England. 

• It IS sometimes derived from one Buckles, who was crushed to deatb hero 
while pulling down the Comet Tower, an old building of Edward I.'s time, to 
enlarge his house. 



THE ROYAL EXCHANGE. 251 

The first Royal Exchange was built by Sir Thomas Gre- 
sham, the great merchant-prince of the sixteenth century. 
Under Edward VI. and Mary he had been employed as a 
confidential agent in obtaining subsidies from great foreign 
merchants, and under Elizabeth took advantage of his 
increasing favour to enforce the benefit of obtaining loans 
from wealthy Englishmen rather than foreigners. Treated 
with the utmost confidence by Elizabeth, he was made 
"Sir Thomas" when employed as ambassador to the 
Duchess of Parma. He continued to keep his shop in 
Lombard Street, distinguished by the sign of the grass- 
hopper, the Gresham crest, but in the country lived with 
great magnificence at Mayfield in Sussex (previously a 
palace of the Archbishop of Canterbury), and at Osterley 
in Middlesex. He died of an apoplectic fit as he was 
walking from his house in Bishopsgate Street to the Ex- 
change, Nov. 21, 1579. 

The idea of the Exchange originated with Sir Richard 
Gresham, father of Sir Thomas, who wished to see English 
merchants as well lodged as those whom he had been 
accustomed to see in the magnificent Bourse at Antwerp. 
And how much something of the kind was needed in Lon- 
don we learn from Stow, who says, " The merchants and 
tradesmen, as well English as strangers, did for their general 
making of bargains, contracts and commerce, usually meet 
twice a day. But these meetings were unpleasant and 
troublesome, by reason of walking and talking in an open 
naiTOw street . . . being there constrained either to endure 
all extremes of weather, viz. heat or cold, snow or rain ; 
or else to shelter themselves in shops." 

The first Exchange, therefore, was built as much as 



25a WALKS IN LONDON. 

possible on the plan of that at Antwerp. A Flemish 
architect, Henryke, was appointed, and all the materials 
were brought from Flanders, much to the disgust of English 
masons and bricklayers. The result was that the Exchange, 
which was opened by Elizabeth in 1571, was foreign-looking 
to the last degree. It was an immense cloistered court, 
with a corridor filled with shops running above its arcades, 
called a " pawn," from the German word " bahn " — a way. 
In front rose an immense column surmounted by the grass- 
hopper of the Greshams. Over the pillars round the quad- 
rangle, which were all of marble, were statues of the 
sovereigns from the Confessor to Elizabeth. Immediately 
on the execution of Charles I. his statue was thrown down, 
and in its place was inscribed, " Exit tyrannus, regum 
ultimus, anno libertatis Angliae restitutse primo." The 
Exchange of Gresham was totally destroyed in the Great 
Fire of 1666. Wren then wished in restoring it to make 
the Exchange the centre of the new London, from which all 
the principal streets should diverge. His wish was opposed, 
and the new building was built much in the same style as 
the old, but with greater magnificence, by Edward Jarman, 
and was adorned with statues by Cibber. 

The second Exchange was burnt in 1838, and the statues 
which survived the fire were for the most part sold as 
lumber ! The present building by Tite, stately, though 
inferior to its predecessor, was opened in 1844. It encloses 
a large cloistered court, with a statue of Queen Victoria 
in the centre. The statue of Charles II. by Gibbons^ which 
formerly occupied that position, is preserved at the south- 
east angle. The inscription on the pedestal of the figure of 
Commerce on the front of the building — '* The Earth is the 



THE OLDEST OF SHOP-FRONTS. 253 

Lord's, and the fulness thereof," was selected by Dean 
Milman on hearing the suggestion of the Prince Consort to 
Mr. Westmacott that the space should be used for some 
inscription recognising a Superior Power. 

The busiest time at the Exchange, when it is most worth 
seeing, is from 3 to 4^ p.m. on Tuesdays and Fridays. The 
eastern part of the building is occupied by Lloyd's^ the great 
rendezvous of ship-owners, and all who seek shipping intel- 
ligence. The name originated in the early transaction of 
the business at Lloyd's Coffee House, at the comer of 
Abchurch Lane. 

" If you would wish the world to know, 
And learn the state of man ; 
How some are high and some are low 

And human actions scan ; 
If justly things you would arrange, 

And study human heart ; 
Observe the humoms of th' Exchange, 
That imiversal mart." 

— Tom Brown. New London Spy. 

Opposite the Exchange, on the right, we should notice an 
old Shop Front (No. 15, Cornhill), carved, painted green, 
and with unusually small panes of glass — ^as being the oldest 
shop of its class in the metropolis. It was established as a 
confectioner's in the time of George I, by a Mr. Horton, 
succeeded by Lucas Birch, whose son and successor, 
Samuel, became Lord Mayor {pb. 1840). His followers 
are of a different family, but wisely retain the old name of 
" Birch and Birch " over the window, as well as the antique 
character of the shop, which they have wisely discovered to 
be the hen which lays their golden eggs. Ine commis- 
sariat of the Mansion House is sometimes entirely entrusted 



254 



WALKS IN LONDON. 



to this shop by the Lords Mayor during the year of their 
mayoralty. 

On the right as we face the Royal Exchange rises the 
Maiismi House, the palace of the King of the City, built 
from designs of George Dance in 1739-40. When first 
erected, it was a very fine building, but it has been ruined 
by the removal of the noble flight of steps by which it was 




The Oldest Shop in London. 



approached, and to which it owed all its beauty of propor- 
tion. Its principal apartment, known as the Egyptian Hall, 
has nothing Egyptian in it, but was so called because con- 
structed to correspond with the Egyptian Hall described 
by Vitruvius. On the site occupied by the Mansion House 
stood formerly a statue altered to represent Charles II., 
from an old statue of John Sobieski, King of Poland, 
brought from Leghorn by Robert Viner, the Lord Mayor,* 
who tried so hard to make his Majesty drunk : f when 

* Pennant. + See Spectator, No. 462. 



ST. STEPHEN'S, WALBROOK, 255 

taken down it was given to the representatives of the Viner 
family. The Lord Mayor's coach, built 1757, is painted 
with allegorical subjects, probably by Cipriani. 

Immediately behind the Mansion House is Wren's master- 
piece — the Church of St. Stephen's Walbrooky commemo- 
rating in its name one of the rivulets of old London, " the 
brook by the wall," which has long disappeared. It would 
seem as if Wren had scarcely condescended to notice its 
exterior, so hideous is it, while the interior is perfect in 
beauty and proportion. " If the material had been as lasting 
and the size as great as St. Paul's, this church would have 
been a greater monument to Wren than the cathedral."* 
When first built it was so far appreciated by the Corpora 
tion, that they presented Lady Wren with a purse of 
ten guineas in recognition of " the great skill and care " 
displayed in its erection by her husband. It is strange 
that though no church has ever been more admired, 
no architect should have ever copied its arrangement. 
A large picture, the Burial of St. Stephen, by Ben- 
jamin West, hangs in this church. Sir John Vanbrugh, 
the architect, is buried here in a family vault There 
is a medallion to Mrs. Catherine Macaulay, 1733-1791, 
who wrote the History of England from the accession of 
James II. to that of the House of Brunswick : Pennant 
speaks of *' the statue erected to Divse Mac-Aulae by her 
doating admirer, a former rector, which a successor of his 
most profanely pulled down." 

Oxford Court, Walbrook, commemorates the old town- 
house of the Earls of Oxford. 

We must cross the space in front of the Exchange to 

* Ferffusson. * 



256 WALKS IN LONDON. 

visit the Bank of England. The conception of the Bank 
originated with Paterson, a Scotchman, in 1691. Its small 
business was first transacted in the Mercers' Hall, then 
in the Grocers' Hall, and in 1734 was moved to the build 
ings which form the back of the present court towards 
Threadneedle Street. The modern buildings, covering 
nearly three acres, were designed in 1788 by Sir John Soane ; 
they are feeble in design and lose in effect from not being 
raised on a terrace. " The Garden Court," which has ? 
fountain, encloses the churchyard of St. Christopher Ic 
Stocks, pulled down when the Bank was built. The taxes 
are received, the interest of the national debt paid, and the 
business of the Exchequer transacted at the Bank. The 
" Old Lady in Threadneedle Street" was long its popular 
name, but is now almost forgotten. 

*' The warlike power of every country depends on their Three pei 
Cents. If Caesar were to reappear on earth, Wettenhall's List would 
be more important than his Commentaries ; Rothschild would open and 
shut the Temple of Janus ; Thomas Baring, or Bates, would probably 
command the Tenth Legion ; and the soldiers would march to battle 
with loud cries of ' Scrip and Omnium reduced!' ' Consols and Csesar.' " 
— Sydney Smith. 

To the east of the Bank (entered from Capel Court, Bar- 
tholomew Lane) is the Stock Exchange, the "ready-money 
market of the world." 

Behind the Bank is Lotkbury, the district of pewterers 
and candlestick-makers, said by Stow to derive its name from 
the loathsome noise made by these workers in metal. 
Here Founders Court takes its name from the brassfoundeis, 
and Tokenhouse Yard from the manufacture of " tokens," 
the copper coinage of England from 1648 to 1672. The 
space between these is occupied by the Church of St, 



THE DRAPERS' HALL. 157 

Margaret, Lofhbury, which has a font adorned with sculp- 
tures attributed to Grinling Gibbons. Here also, removed 
from the destroyed Church of St. Christopher le Stocks, is a 
fme bronze monumental bust of a knight, inscribed " Petrus 
le Maire ^ques Auratus. M. suae 2>^, 1631." 

Throgmorton Street {mmt^ after Sir Nicholas Throgmorton, 
said to have been poisoned by Elizabeth's Earl of Leicester) 
is filled every afternoon with a busy crowd discussing the 
affairs of the Stock Exchange. 

The Drapers Hall, on the left, was built by Herbert 
Williams in 1869 around a large quiet court, which is 
adorned with laurel-trees in tubs. A handsome winding 
staircase of coloured marbles, decorated with statues of 
Edward III. and Philippa, leads to the Banqueting Hall, 
which is adorned with the utmost magnificence that can 
co-exist with absence of taste. In this and the neighbouring 
rooms are many good portraits, but we should especially 
notice, in the Court Room, — 

Zucchero. Mary, Queen of Scots, a full-length portrait. Her little 
3on James VI. is painted with her, though she never saw him after he 
was a year old. The picture is said to have been thrown over the wall 
into the Drapers' Gardens for security during the Great Fire, and to have 
been found there afterwards amid the ruins, and never claimed. 

Sir W. Beechey. Lord Nelson. 

At the back of the Hall is a remnant of the Drapers' Gar- 
den and two of its famous mulberry-trees, but the beauty 
of this charming old garden was sacrificed for money-making 
a few years ago. 



CHAPTER VII. 
ALDERSGATE AND CRIPPLEGATK. 

LET us now return to St. Martin's-le-Grand and turn to the 
left down Aldersgate Street^ so called from the northern 
gate, one of the three original gates of Anglo-Norman 
London. Some derive its name from the Saxon Aldrich, its 
supposed founder ; others, including Stow, from the alder- 
trees which grew around it. The gate (removed in 176 1) 
as restored after the Fire was rather like Temple Bar, with 
the addition of side towers, and was surmounted by a figure 
of James I. It was inscribed with the words of Jeremiah — 
"Then shall enter into the gates of this city kings and 
princes, sitting upon the throne of David, riding in chariots 
and on horses, they and their princes, the men of Judah, 
and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and this city shall remain 
for ever." The rooms over the gate were occupied by the 
famous printer John Day, who printed the folio Bible, 
dedicated to Edward VI., in 1549, as well as the works of 
Roger Ascham, Latimer's Sermons, and Foxe's " Book of 
Martyrs." In the frontispiece of one of his books, he is 
represented in a room into which the sun is shining, 
arousing his sleeping apprentices with a whip, and the 
words — " Arise, for it is day." 



BULL AND MOUTH STREET. 259 

On the right of Aldersgate Street, behind the Post-office, 
is an ugly Church, built by Wren, called St. Anne in the 
Willows — a name very inappropriate to it now. The 
curious monuments in this church were removed at the end 
of the last century. One to Peter Heiwood, 1701, recorded 
the fate of his grandfather, the Peter Heiwood who arrested 
Guy Fawkes, and, in revenge, was stabbed to death in West- 
minster Hall by John James, a Dominican friar, in 1640. 

St. Anne's Lane is the scene of Sir Roger de Coverley's 
adventure — 

"This worthy knight, being but a stripling, had occasion to inquire 
which was the way to St. Anne's Lane ; upon which the person whom 
he spoke to, instead of answering the question, called him a young 
popish cur, and asked him who made Anne a saint ? The boy being in 
some confusion, inquired of the next he met, which was the way to 
Anne's Lane ; but was called a prick-eared cur for his pains, and, 
instead of being shown the way, was told that she had been a saint 
before he was bom, and would be one after he was hanged. * Upon 
this,' says Sir Roger, *I did not think fit to repeat the former 
question, but going into every lane of the neighbourhood, asked what 
they called the name of that place ; ' by which ingenious artifice he 
found out the place he inquired after, without giving ofience to any 
party." — Spectator, No. 125. 

On the left is Bull and Mouth Street (Boulogne Mouth) 
curiously commemorating, in its corrupted name, the capture 
of Boulogne Harbour by Henry VIII., in 1544. The Bull 
and Mouth Inn was one of the great centres from which 
coaches started before the time of railways. It was here 
that George Fox, founder of the Quakers, preached during 
the Commonwealth. After the Restoration the inn became 
celebrated in the story of Quaker persecutions : it was 
there that (August 26, 1662) EUwood was seized and 
carried to BrideweH, afterwards to Newgate. 



26o WALKS IN LONDON. 

On the left of Aldersgate Street, the branches of a plane- 
tree waving over a small Gothic fountain will draw attention 
to the Church of St, Botolph, Aldersgate^ of 1796, which 
contains the monument of Dame Anne Packington, sup- 
posed to have written "The Whole Duty of Man." A 
brotherhood of the Holy Trinity was attached to this 
church. The Palmer in John Heywood's " Four P's/' 
describing his pilgrimages in difterent parts of the world, 
<:a,vs that he has been — 

" At Saint Botulphe and Saint Anne of Buckstone, 
* * * ♦ • 

Praying to them to pray for me, 
Unto the blessed Trinitie." 

Little Britain (commemorating the mansion of John, Duke 
of Bretagne and Earl of Richmond, temp. Edward II.), a 
tributary of Aldersgate Street on the left, was as great a 
centre for booksellers in the reigns of the Stuarts as Pater- 
noster Row is now. It is the place where, according to 
Richardson, the Earl of Dorset was wandering about on a 
book-hunt in 1667, when, coming upon a hitherto unknown 
work called " Paradise Lost," and dipping into it here and 
there, he admired it rather, and bought it. The bookseller 
begged him, if he approved of it, to recommend it, as 
the copies lay on his hands as so much waste paper. He 
took it home, and showed it to Dryden, who said at once, 
" This man cuts us all out and the ancients too." The 
street has still much of the character, though it has lost 
the picturesqueness, described by Washington Irving. 

"In the centre of the great City of London lies a small neigh- 
bourhood, consisting of a cluster of narrow streets and courts, of 
very venerable and debihtated houses, which goes by name of Little 



SILVER STREET. 261 

Britain. Christ Church School and St. Bartholomew's Hospital 
bound it on the west ; Smithfield and Long Lane on the north ; 
Aldersgate Street, like an arm of the sea, divides it from the eastern 
part of the City ; whilst the yawning gulf of Bull and Mouth Street 
separates it from Butcher's HaU Lane and the regions of Newgate. 
Over this little territory, thus bounded and designated, the great 
dome of St. Paul's, swelling above the intervening houses of Pater- 
noster Row, Amen Corner, and Ave Maria Lane, looks down with an 
air of motherly protectior 

" This quarter derives its appellation trom having been, in ancient 
times, the residence of the Dukes of Brittany. As London increased, 
however, rank and fashion moved off to the west, ana trade, creeping 
on at their heels, took possession of their deserted abodes. For some 
time Little Britain became the great mart of learning, and was peopled 
by the busy and prolific race of booksellers ; these also gradually 
deserted it, and emigrating beyond the great strait of Newgate Street, 
settled down in Paternostei Row and St. Paul's Churchyard, where 
they continue to increase and mvdtiply even at the present day. 

" But though thus fallen into decline, Little Britain stiU bears traces 
of its former splendour. There are several houses ready to tumble 
down, the fronts of which are magnificently enriched with oaken 
carvings of hideous faces, unlcnown birds, beasts, and fishes; and fruits 
and flowers which it wotild puzzle a naturalist to classify. There are 
also, in Aldersgate Street, certain remains of what were once spacious 
and lordly family mansions, but which have in latter days been sub- 
divided into several tenements. Here may often be found the family of 
a petty tradesman, with its trumpery furniture, burrowing amongst the 
relics of antiquated finery, in great rambling time-stained apartments, 
with fretted ceilings, gilded cornices, and enormous marble fire-places. 
The lanes and courts also contain many smaller houses, not on so 
grand a scale, but, hke your small gentry, sturdily maintaining their 
claims to equal antiquity. These have their gable ends to the street ; 
great bow windows, with diamond panes set in lea'd ; grotesque carvings, 
and low-arched doorways.* Little Britain may truly be called the 
heart's core of the City ; the stronghold of true John BulHsm, It is a 
fragment of London as it was in its better days, with its antiquated 
folks and fashions." — The Sketch Book, 

A little beyond, on the right of Aldersgate, Falcon Street 
leads into Silver Street, which contains one of the pretty quiet 
breathing-places bequeathed by the Fire to the City, A 

• There are still such houses in the neighbouring Cloth Fair. 



262 WALKS IN LONDON, 

stone tells " This was the parish church of St. Olave, Silver 
Street, destroy'd in the dreadfvU fire in the yeare, 1666." 
No. 24, Silver Street, is the Hall of the Parish Clerks 
Company^ incorporated 1232, Amongst their portraits of 
benefactors is one of William Roper, son-in-law of Sir 
Thomas More. 

On the left of Silver Street is Mofikwell Street, containing 
(left, No. 33) ih^ Barber-Surgeons' Court- Room (their Hall is 
destroyed, and their Company consists neither of Barbers nor 
Surgeons), approached by an old porch of Charles II.'s time. 
Here are several good pictures — the Countess of Richmond 
(with a lamb and an olive-branch) by Sir Peter Lely ; Inigo 
Jones by Vandyke; and a grand Holbein of Henry VHI. 
giving a charter to the Barber-Surgeons.* The Company 
have refused ofiers of ;£i 2,000- for this picture in later 
years, though Pepys somewhat contemptuously says — 

" 29th Aug. 1668. Harris (the actor) and I to the Chyrurgeons' 
Hall, where they are building it now very fine ; and thence to see their 
theatre, which stood all the Fire, and (which was our business) their 
great picture of Holbein's, thinking to have bought it, by the help of 
W. Pierce, for a little money : I did think to give ;^20O for it, it being 
said to be worth ;i^iooo ; but it is so spoUed that I have no mind to it, 
and it is not a pleasant, though a good picture." 

The picture is a noble one and most minutely finished; 
even to the details of the ermine on the king's robe and the 
rings on his fingers. Henry, seated in a chair of state, is 
giving the charter to Thomas Vicary, the then master, who 
was sergeant-surgeon to Henry VHI., Edward VI., Mary, 
and Elizabeth, and is said to have written the earliest work 

• In that time and long afterwards, barbers officiated as surgeons in bleeding, 
as still in Italy. The well-known staff which sticks out above a barber's door 
commemorates this, as it was customary for the patient about to be bled to hold 
a staff at full length to keep his arm upon the stretch during the operation. 



BARBER-SURGEONS' COURT-ROOM. 263 

on anatomy in the English language. The thirteen princi- 
pal members, who kneel in gowns trimmed with fur, bear 
their names on their shoulders. The three on the right. 
Chamber, Butts, and Alsop, were all past masters of the 
company, at the time of the giving of the Charter. Dr. 
John Chamber was the king's chief physician and Dean of 
St. Stephen's College, Westminster, where he built the 
cloister ; Dr. Butts, also physician to the king, had been 
admitterl to the company as " vir gravis ; eximia literarum 
cognitione, singulari judicio, summa experientia, et prudenti 
consilio Doctor : " his conduct, on the presumed degrada- 
tion of Cranmer, is nobly pourtrayed by Shakspeare. Dr. 
J, Alsop is represented with lank hair and uncovered. Sir 
John Ayliffe, who kneels on the left, was also an eminent 
surgeon, and had been sheriff of London in 1548; accord- 
ing to the inscription on his monument in the Church of St. 
Michael Bassishaw, he was " called to court," by Henry the 
Eighth, " who loved him dearly well ; " and was afterwards 
knighted for his services to Edward VI. The picture 
furnishes an example of the beginning of a change of 
costume, in respect to shirts : the wrists of Henry being 
encircled by small ruffles, and the necks of several of the 
members displaying a raised collar.* 

A curious leather screen in the Court-Room is said to 
commemorate the gratitude of a man who, after being hung 
at Tyburn, was discovered to be still living, and resuscitated 
by the efforts of the Barber-Surgeons, when his body was 
brought to them for dissection. Such a recovery did occur 
(November 1740) in the case of William Duel, aged 17, 
who, after being hanged at Tyburn for twenty-two minutes^ 

• See Allen's "Hist, of London." 



264 WALKS IN LONDON. 

recovered in the Surgeons' Hall, just as he was about to be 
cut up by the anatomists. 

Amongst the plate of the Company is a very curious 
cup, made by ordei of Charles II., and presented by him, 
the Master at the time being Sir Charles Scarborough, his 
chief physician. It is of silver, partially gilt, the stem and 
body representing the oak of Boscobel, and the acorns which 
hang around containing little bells, which ring as the cup 
passes from hand to hand. 

Smollett, who painted many of the events of his own life 
in Roderick Random, describes his appearance at Barber- 
Surgeons' Hall to pass his examination before obtaining 
the appointment of surgeon's mate, which he did in 1741. 

Windsor Place, Monkwell Street, commemorates the town- 
house of the Lords Windsor. The modern houses on the 
right of the street occupy the site of the Hermitage of St. 
James-in-the-Wall, a cell of Quorndon Abbey in Leicester- 
shire. At the Dissolution it was granted by Henry VIII. 
to William Lambe, a cloth worker, who built (c. 1540) an 
interesting chapel, pulled down in 1874, over its fine old 
Norman crypt, of which a portion is preserved in the 
garden of the Clothworkers' Hall in Mincing Lane. 

Returning to Aldersgate Street, Westmoreland Buildings, 
on the left, mark the site of the town-house of the Nevils, 
Earls of Westmoreland. On the right of the street, con- 
spicuous from its front by eight pillars, is a fine old 
house built by Inigo Jones, formerly called Thanet House, 
from the Tuftons, Earl of Thanet, but which has been 
known as Shaftesbury Bouse since it w.-is inhabited by the 
first Earl of Shaftesbury, Anthony Ashley Cooper, the 
" Achitophel " of Dryden, so graphically described by him. 



SHAFTESBURY HOUSE. 



265 



For close designs, and crooked counsels fit, 

Sagacious, bold, and turbulent of wit ; 

Restless, unfixed in principles and place, 

In power unpleased, impatient of disgrace ; 

A fiery soul, which working out its way, 

Fretted the pigmy body to decay, 

And o'er-informed the tenement of clay. 

A daring pilot in extremity, 

Pleased with the danger when the waves went high, 

He sought the storms ; but, for a calm unfit. 

Would steer too nigh the sands to boast his wit." 




Shaftesbury House, Aldersgate. 



Lord Shaftesbury chose this house as a residence that he 
might the better influence the minds of the citizens, of whom 
he boasted that he " could raise ten thousand brisk boys by 
the holding up of his finger." His animosity to the Duke of 
York obliged his retirement in 1683 to Holland, where he 
died. The house, as Maitland says, is " a most delightful 
fine residence, which deserves a much better situation, and 
greater care to preserve it from the injuries of time." 

Close by was Bacon House, the private residence of Sir 



266 WALKS IN LONDON, 

Nicholas, father of the great Lord Bacon — the fat old man 
of whom Queen Elizabeth used to say " my Lord Keeper's 
soul is well lodged," and of whom so many witticisms are 
remembered, especially his reply to the thief Hogg, who 
claimed his mercy on plea of kindred between the Hoggs 
and the Bacons, " Ah, you and I cannot be kin until you 
have been hanged." 

Opposite Shaftesbury House was London House, which, 
being at one time the residence of the Bishops of London, 
was the place to which the Princess Anne fled in the revolu- 
tion of 1688. An old house with the low gables and pro- 
jecting windows which stood near it, and which still exists, 
is called, without reason, '' Shakspeare's House," but, as 
the " Half Moon Tavern," it was a well-known resort of the 
wits of the sixteenth century. Much curious carving, seen 
in prints of this old building, is now destroyed. Lauder- 
dale House, at the end of Hare Court (right), was the 
residence of John Maitland, Duke of Lauderdale, intro- 
duced in " Old Mortality." 

Aldersgate Street leads into Goswell (Godes-well) Road^ 
to the right of which Old Street leads eastwards. 

** The oldest way in or about London is perhaps that which bears 
the names of Old Street, Old Street Road, and (further eastward) the 
Roman Road, leading to Old Ford ; probably a British way and ford 
over the Lea, and older than London itself — fonning the original com- 
munication between the eastern and western counties north of the 
Thames." — Archceologia, xli. 

The whole of this neighbourhood teems with associations 
of Milton, who lived in "a pretty garden-house" in Aiders- 
gate Street after his removal from St. Bride's Churchyard. 
In 1 66 1 he went to live in Jewifi Street {on the right of 
Aldersgate, formerly the Jews' Garden and the only place 



JEWIN STREET, 



267 



where Jews had a right to bury before the reign of Henry 
II.). It was here that Mihon, who had already been bUnd 
for ten years, married his third wife, EHzabeth, daughter of 
Sir Edward Minshul, of a Cheshire family, in 1664, the year 
before the Plague. 




" Shakspeare's House," Aldersgate. 



Here, in his blindness, he gave instruction by ear to 
Ellwood the Quaker in the foreign pronunciation of Latin, 
which he aptly said was the only way in which he could 
benefit by Latin in conversation with foreigners. It was 
this Ellwood who, when the Plague broke out in 1665, gave 
Milton the cottage-refuge at Chalfont St. Giles, in which he 



268 



WALKS IN LONDON. 



wrote bis " Paradise Regained." He returned to London 
to reside in Bunhill Fields in 1666, and there, on Nov. 8, 
1674, he died, and was attended to the grave, says Toland 
(1698), by "all his learned and great friends in London, 
not without a friendly concourse of the vulgar." 

Jewin Street leads into Cripplegate, so called, says Mait- 




Redcross Street. 

land, " from the cripples who begged there." The gate of 
the City here was of great antiquity, for the body of St. 
Edmund the Martyr was carried through it in loio from 
Bury St. Edmunds, to save it from the Danes, and, accord- 
ing to Lidgate, the monk of Bury, it worked great miracles 
beneath it. Here, as we stand in Redcross Street (so called 
from a cross which once stood in Beech Lane), we see 



I 



ST. GILES, CRIPFLEGATE. 269 

rising above a range of quaint old houses built in 1660, 
and so displaying tlie architecture in fashion just before 
the Great Fire, the tower of St. Giles, the church of the 
hermit of the Rhone, who was the especial saint of cripples 
and lepers. Its characteristics cannot be better described 
than in the words of the author of "The Hand of 
Ethelberta"— 

" Turning into Redcross Street they beheld the bold shape of the 
tower they sought, clothed in every neutral shade, standing clear 
against the sky, dusky and grim in its upper stage, and hoary grey 
below, where every comer of stone was completely rounded off by the 
waves of wind and storm. All people were busy here : our visitors 
seemed to be the only idle persons the city contained ; and there was 
no dissonance — there never is— between antiquity and such beehive 
industry ; for pure industry, in failing to observe its own existence and 
aspect, partakes of the unobtrusive nature of material things. This 
intramural stir was a fly-wheel transparent by infinite motion, through 
which Milton and his day could be seen as if nothing intervened. 
Had there been ostensibly harmonious accessories, a crowd of observing 
people in search of the poetical, conscious of the place and the scene, 
what a discord would have arisen there." 

The church, which is celebrated for the burial of Mil- 
ton and the marriage of Cromwell, has been grievously 
mauled and besmeared with blue and white paint inter- 
nally. A foolish Gothic canopy with tawdry alabaster 
columns has been raised over the fine bust of Milton 
by Bacon^ placed here in 1793 by Mr. Whitbread. The 
poet was buried in 1674 in the grave of his father {pb, 
1646), " an ingenuous man," says Aubrey, *' who delighted 
in music." The parish books say that Milton died " of con- 
sumption, fourteen years after the blessed Restoration." In 
1790 his bones were disinterred, his hair torn off, and his 
teeth knocked out and carried off by the churchwardens, 
after which, lor many years, Elizabeth Grant, the female 



270 WALKS IN LONDON. 

grave-digger, used to keep a candle and exhibit the muti- 
lated skeleton at twopence and threepence a head. This 
sacrilege led to Cooper's lines — 

«« 111 fare the hands that heaved the stones 
Where Milton's ashes lay, 
That trembled not to grasp his bones, 
And steal his dust away. 

•* O, ill-requited bard ! neglect 
Thy living worth repaid, 
And blind idolatrous respect 
As much affronts the dead ! " 

""Whoever has any true taste and genius, we are confident, will 
esteem ' Paradise Lost ' the best of aU modem productions, and the 
Scriptures the best of all ancient ones." — Bishop Newton. 

On the south wall is an interesting bust to Speed, the 
topographer, 1629; and, near the west door, the slab tomb 
of Foxe the martyrologist, 1587. On the north wall are the 
tombs of the daughter and granddaughter of Shakspeare's 
Sir Thomas Lucy. The latter is represented rising in her 
shroud from her tomb at the resurrection, which has given 
rise to a tradition that she was buried alive and roused from 
her trance by the sexton, who opened her coffin to steal 
one of her rings. The parish register records the marriage 
of Oliver Cromwell and Elizabeth Bowchier, August 20, 
1620. 

In the sunny Churchyard of St. Giles is a well-pre- 
served bastion of the City Wall of Edward IV.'s time. 
The lower portion is formed of rude stones and tiles, the 
upper of courses of flint laid in cement. The battlements 
of the old wall adjoining were removed in 1803 and a 
stupid brick wall erected in their place " at the expense of 
the parish." 



ST, GILES, CRIPPLE GATE. 271 

The bells of St. Giles's are celebrated, and 

" Oh, what a preacher is the time-worn tower, 
Reading great sermons with its iron tongue." 

Not far from the church was Crowder's Well (com- 




St. Giles, Cripplegate. 



memorated in Well Street), of which we read in Childrey's 
"Britannia Baconica" (1661) that its waters had " a pleasant 
taste like that of new milk," and were " very good for sore 
eyes; "moreover that there was "an ancient man who when- 
ever he was sick would drink plenteously of this Crowder's 
Well water, and was presently made well, and whenever he 



272 WALKS IN LONDON. 

was overcome of drink, he would drink of this water, which 
would presently make him sober " ! 

The curious " Williams Library," founded in Redcross 
Street by Dr. Daniel Williams, the dissenting divine (1644 — 
1716), which contained an original portrait of Baxter, was 
pulled down in 1857. Its books (20,000 volumes) are now 
at Somerset House. 

Redcross Street leads into Golden (Golding) Lane, where 
the name of Flay House Yard on the right, connecting this 
with Whitecross Street, is a memorial of the ancient 
*' Fortune Theatre " erected in 1599 on that site: it was 
last used in the time of Charles II. This theatre is con- 
sidered by some to have been " The Fortune " by which 
Edward Alleyne, the founder of Dulwich College, made his 
wealth, having been the son of the innkeeper of " the Pye " 
in Bishopsgate Street : others identify it with Killigrew's 
playhouse called " The Nursery," which was intended as a 
school for young actors. Pepys records his visit to the 
tlieatre by saying, " I found the musique better that we 
looked for, and the acting not much worse, because I 
expected as bad as could be." 

On the left is Barbicariy so called from a watch-tower on 
the city-wall — 

"A watch-toTiVfer once, but now, so fate ordains, 
Of all the pile an empty name remains." 

Dryden, 

Here Milton lived 1646 — 7, and here he wrote " Comus," 
" Lycidas," " L'Allegro," and " II Penseroso." In Beech- 
land, by Barbican, was the palace of Prince Rupert. It 
was in these narrow streets of Cripplegate that the Plague 
raged worst of all. 



GRVB STREET, 273 

On the left of Fore Street is Milton Street^ formerly the 
notorious Grub Street, well known as the abode of small 
authors, who, writers of trashy pamphlets and broadsides, 
became the butts for the wits of their time : thus Grub 
Street appears in the " Dunciad '* — 

" Not with less glory mighty Dullness crown'd, 
ShaU take through Grub Street her triumphant round, 
And her Parnassus glancing o'er at once, 
Behold a hundred sons, and each a dunce." 

" Pope's answers are so sharp, and his slaughter so wholesale, that 
the reader's sympathies are often enlisted on the side of the devoted 
inhabitants of Grub Street. He it was who brought the notion of a 
\'ile Grub Street before the minds of the general pubHc ; he it was who 
created such associations as author and rags — author and dirt — 
author and gin. The occupation of authorship became ignoble 
through his graphic description of misery, and the hterary profession 
was for a long time destroyed." — Thackeray, 

The name " Grub Street," as opprobrious, seems, how- 
ever, to have been first applied by their opponents to the 
writings of Foxe the Martyrologist, who resided in the 
street, as did John Speed the Historian. Oddly enough, 
in this neighbourhood full of memories of him, the modern 
name of the street is not derived from the poet, but from 
Milton a builder. In Sweedon's Passage, opening out of 
this street, was a curious old building called Gresham 
House, pulled down in 1805 ; it was shown as the house 
of Sir Richard ("Dick") Whittington in the reign of Henry 
IV., and of Sir Thomas Gresham in that of Elizabeth. 

Returning a few steps, Cripplegate Buildings lead into 
the street called Lo?tdon Wall^ opposite the picturesque 
modern Hall of the Curriers Company^ which recalls the old 
buildings of Innsbruck, and is decorated with the banner- 
bearing stags, which are the crest of the Company. 

VOL. I. T 



274 



WALKS IN LONDON. 



Close by, with a fine old brick and stone front towards 
Philip Lane, is Sion College, founded 1631 by Dr. Thomas 
White, vicar of St. Dunstan's in the West, for the use of the 
London clergy--" where expectants may lodge till they are 
provided with houses in the several parishes in which they 




Sion College. 



serve cure."* The story of the Good Samaritan is repre- 
sented on its seal. The college has a chapel, library, and 
hospital attached to it. Half of the library was consumed 
in the Great Fire. Fuller resided in the quiet courts of 
Sion College while he was writing his " Church History." 

* Defoe, "Journey through England," 1722. 



LONDON WALL. 275 

The neighbouring Chm-ch of St. Alphege, London Wall 
(dedicated to the Archbishop of Canterbury, murdered by 
the Danes in 1014), might easily escape observation. Its 
towei belonged to an earlier church, St. Mary Elsing Spittal, 
founded in 1532, of which the Early English doorway is a 
relic. The interior, rebuilt 1777, is little better than a 
square room, but on its north wall is preserved the hand- 
some Corinthian monument of Sir Rowland Hayward 
(i593)j twice Lord Mayor, and at his death "the antientest 
alderman of the city." He kneels under the central niche, 
on a red cushion, facing the spectators, and at the sides are 
his two wives and the eight " happy children " of each. 

Opposite St. Alphege, a fragment of its Churchyard is 
preserved (in a garden formed 1872) for the sake of the fine 
fragment of the old London Wall which it contains. 

Alderman bury Postern was a small gate in the Wall close 
to this, which led into Finsbury Fields, much frequented by 
the Londoners in summer evenings. 

On the right is the opening of New Basinghall Street^ 
named (with Bassishaw Ward) from the Basings, who 
lived hard by in Blackwell Hall, from the reign of John to 
that of Edward IH. Here, in a quiet court, is the Church 
of S. Michael Bassishaw (Basings haugh), one of Wren's 
worst rebuildings. It contains the tomb of Dr. T. Wharton, 
remarkable for his devotion to the sufferers in the great 
Plague of 1665. In the old church, destroyed in the Fire, 
Sir John Gresham, Lord Mayor in 1547, uncle of Sir 
Thomas, was buried with solemnities like those which still 
attend the funerals of the Roman princes. 

*' He was buried with a standard and pennon of arms, and a coat of 
armom- of damask, and fom- pennons of arms ; besides a helmet, a 



276 WALKS IN LONDON. 

target, and a sword, mantles and the crest, a goodly hearse of wax, ten 
dozen of pensils, and twelve dozen of escutcheons. He had four 
dozen of great staff torches, and a dozen of great long torches. The 
church and street were all hung with black, and arms in great store ; 
and on the morrow three goodly masses were sung." — Stow. 

The last State Lottery in England was held at Cooper's 
Hall in Basinghall Street, Oct. i8, 1826. 

Farther down London Wall, on the right, at the entrance 
of Throgmorton Avenue, is the Hall of the Carpenters Com- 
pany, erected 1877 from designs of G. Focock. Many will 
remember with bitter regret the noble old building which 
was destroyed when this was built — the staircase and vesti- 
bule adorned with exquisite medallions from designs of 
Bacon ; and the hall, so picturesque without, and so full 
of glorious oak carving within — one of the best of the build- 
ings which survived the Fire. On its western wall were 
frescoes illustrative of the carpenter's art, which had been 
white-washed in Puritan times and re-discovered in 1845, 



Noah receiving the instructions of the Almighty as to building the 
Ark. 

Josiah repairing the Temple (his workmen in the costume of 
Henry VHI.). 

Our Lord gathering chips in the workshop of Joseph, who was repre- 
sented at work, with the Virgin spinning by his side. 

The Teaching of the child Jesus in the Synagogue. " Is not this 
the carpenter's son ? " 

The first Hall, built " by citizens and carpenters of 
London," was erected in 1428 on land leased in this neigh- 
bourhood from the Priory of St. Mary Spittal. 

Passing the ugly Church of Allhallows in the Wall^ built 
in 1765, containing an altar-piece by Dance, we may enter 
Broad Street and turn to the right. 



AUSTIN FRIARS. 



277 



Where Broad Street falls into Throgmorton Street a gate- 
way on the right leads into the quiet courts of Austin 
I*riars, occupying the site of a famous Augustinian con- 
vent founded in 1243 by Humphrey de Bohun, Earl of 
Hereford and Essex. At the Dissolution it was granted by 




In Austin Friars. 



Henry Vni. to William Paulet, first Marquis of Winchester ; 
but the church, which was retained for the king, was granted 
by Edward VI. " to the Dutch nation in London to have 
their service in (as he says in his journal of June 29, 1550), 
for avoiding of all sects of Ana-Baptists, and such like." 
The Dutch still own the building, which has some handsome 



27? WALKS IN LONDON. 

Decorated windows. The tombs in this church — once like 
a cathedral, the present edifice being only part of the ancient 
nave — were amongst the most magnificent in London — and 
it still contains the remains of a vast number of eminent 
persons, including Richard Fitz Alan, Earl of Surrey, be- 
headed in 1397 by Richard II. for joining the league 
against Vere and De la Pole ; Humphrey de Bohun, god- 
father of Edward I., who fought in the Battle of Evesham ; 
Hubert de Burgh, Earl of Kent, who was so powerful in 
the reigns of John and Henry III. ; Edward, eldest son of 
the Black Prince and of the Fair Maid of Kent, who died 
in his seventh year, 1375; the loth Earl of Arundel, 
executed at Cheapside in 1397 ; John de Vere, 12th Earl 
of Oxford, beheaded on Tower Hill in 1461 ; the barons 
who fell in the Battle of Barnet, buried together in the body 
of the church in 147 1 ; William, Lord Berkeley (1492), and 
his wife Joan ; and Edward Bohun, Duke of Buckingham, be- 
headed in 1 52 1, through the jealousy of Cardinal Wolsey, — 
of whose death Charles V. said that " a Butcher's son 
(Wolsey) had devoured the fairest buck in all England." 
It will scarcely be believed that the monuments of all these 
illustrious dead were sold by the second Marquis of Win- 
chester for ;^ioo! The monastery had been granted by 
Henry VIII. to the first Marquis, who is celebrated as 
having lived under nine sovereigns, and who, when asked 
in his old age how he had contrived to get on so well with 
them all, said " by being a willow and not an oak." He 
was the builder of Winchester House in Austin Friars, 
which was sold to a city merchant by the 4th Marquis, but 
only pulled down in 1839. In this house the famous Anne 
Clifford, who "knew ever}'thing from predestination to 



GREAT WINCHESTER STREET, 279 

slane silk,"* married her first husband, Richard, Earl of 
Dorset, February 25, 1608 — 9. Winchester House is com- 
memorated in Greal Winchester Street^ which till lately con- 
tained more ancient houses than almost any street in 
London. Now many of them are rebuilt, but the street has 
an old-world look, and ends in a quiet court surrounded 
with ancient brick houses, with a broad stone staircase 
leading to the principal doorway. The Hall of the Pinners 
Company is in this street. 

Turning to the right from the gate of Austin Friars, we 
find ourselves at the western front of the Royal Exchange, 
before which is the seated Statue of George Feabody by W^ 
Story. 

* Dr. Donne. 



CHAPTER VIII. 
BISHOPSGATE. 

RETURNING to the Royal Exchange, we must follow 
Threadneedle Street^ properly Three-Needle Street, 
which belongs to the Merchant Tailors. On the right, 
concealed by a row of houses (for which an annual rent of 
;^3 per foot is paid), is the Hall of the Merchant Tailors 
Company^ which was incorporated in 1466. It was built 
after the great Fire by the city architect Jarmin, and sur- 
rounds a courtyard. It can only be visited by a special 
order from the Master or Clerk of the Company. The 
Hall is a noble chamber (90 feet by 48), rich in stained 
glass and surrounded by the arms of the members. At the 
end are the arms of the Company — the Lamb of their patron 
St. John Baptist, and a pavilion between two royal mantles, 
with camels as supporters. A corridor beyond the Hall has 
stained glass windows which commemorate a quarrel for 
precedence between the Merchant Tailors and Skinners 
Companies in 1484 — 5. The Lord Mayor (Sir R. Belesdon) 
was called upon to decide it, and ordained that the Com- 
panies should have precedence by alternate years : and in 
commemoration of their peace the Skinners Company dines 



THE MERCHANT TAILORS HALL, 281 

with its rival every year in July, when the Master of the 
Merchant Tailors proposes the toast — 

** Skinners and Merchant Tailors, 
Merchant Tailors and Skinners, 
Root and branch may they tlourish 
For ever and eve ;" 

and in August the Skinners return the hospitality, giving 
the same toast and reversing the order in which the Com- 
panies are named. 

The Court Dining-Room contains — 

George III. and Queen Charlotte — copies of pictures at Hatfield by 
Sir T. Lawrence. 

George Bristow, clerk of the Company — Opie, 
George North, clerk — Hudson, 
Samuel Fiske — Richmond. 

A noble staircase, the walls of which bear portraits of former 
masters, leads to the Picture Gallery^ containing — 

Charles I. — School of Vandyke. 

Duke of Wellington— ^z>Z>. Wilkie. 

Lord Chancellor Eldon with his favourite dog — Pickersgill, 

Duke of York — Sir Thomas Lawrence, 

*Henry VIII. — Paris Bordone. 

William ViVi—Hoppner, 

The Drawing-Room contains — 
Charles II. 



James n. ^ Sir G. Kneller 
William III. •) „ 
Mary II. \ Murray, 

In the Court Business Room are — 

Sir Thomas White, 1561, Founder of St. John's College at Oxford, 
said to have been painted, after his death, from his sister who was 
exactly like him. 

Sir Thomas Row. 1562. 

Sir Abraham Reynardson, Lord Mayor, 1540. 



282 WALKS IN LONDON. 

In the Kitchen eighteen haunches of venison can be 
cooked at once and are cooked for the great dinner on the 
first Wednesday in July. A small but beautiful vaulted 
Crypt is a relic of the Hall destroyed in the great Fire. 
The magnificent collection of plate includes some curious 
Irish tankards of 1683, and the silver measure by which the 
Merchant Tailors had the right to test the goods in Bar- 
tholomew Fair. 

On the north of Threadneedle Street was the South Sea 
House, rendered famous by the " bubble "of 1720. Thread- 
needle Street falls into the picturesque and irregular Bishops- 
gate Street, which, having escaped the great Fire, is full of 
quaint buildings with high roofs and projecting windows, 
and is rich in several really valuable memorials of the past. 

The most interesting of the remaining houses is one 
which we see on the right immediately after entering Bishops- 
gate — Crosby Hall, with a late lath and plaster front towards 
the street, but altogether the most beautiful specimen of 
domestic architecture remaining in London, and one of the 
finest examples of the 15th century in England. 

Sir John Crosby, " Grocer and Woolman," was an Alder- 
man, who represented the City of London in 146 1. In 
147 1 he was knighted by Edward IV. He obtained a lease 
of this property for ninety-nine years from Alice Ashfield, 
Prioress of St. Helens, and built " this house of stone and 
timber, very large and beautiful, and the highest," says Stow, 
*' at that time in London." But he died in 1475 ; so that 
he only enjoyed his palace for a short time. 

It was here, says Sir Thomas More, that Richard, Duke 
of Gloucester, " lodged himself, and little by little all folks 
drew unto him, so that the Protector's court was crowded 



CROSBY HALL, 283 

and King Edward's left desolate," and it was in the hall 
which we now see that he planned the deposition, most 
probably the death, of his nephew. Shakspeare knew 
Crosby Hall well, for we know from the parish assessments 
that he was residing in 1598 in St. Helens, where, from the 
sum levied, he must have inhabited a house of importance. 
Ue introduces Crosby Hall as the place where Richard 
mduced Anne of Warwick to await his return from the 
funeral of her father-in-iaw, the muraered Henry VI., and 
he otherwise twice mentions it in his play of Richard III., 
to which fact it is probable that we owe the preservation of 
the grand old house, amongst the vicissitudes which have 
attended other historical buildings. 

Sir Thomas More lived here for some years ; and here, 
without doubt, wrote his Life of Richard III. In 1523 he 
sold it to the man whom he himself describes as his 
*' dearest friend," Antonio Bonvisi, an Italian merchant of 
Lucca, who was settled in London. It was to this Bonvisi 
that he wrote a last touching letter with charcoal from the 
Tower, and, on the morning of his execution, the dress he 
put on was the " silk camlet gown given him by his entire 
good friend M. Antonio Bonvisi." It would seem that 
after Sir Thomas More's execution his devoted daughter 
Margaret longed to return to a place so much connected 
with her father's sacred life, and in 1547 Bonvisi leased 
Crosby Hall to More's son-in-law, William Roper, and to 
his nephew, William Rastell, who was an eminent printer. 
By the religious persecutions under Edward VI., Bonvisi, 
Roper, and Rastell were all obliged to go abroad, but they 
returned under Mary. The next proprietor of the house 
was Alderman Bond, who added a turret to it, and died 



284 WALKS IN LONDON. 

here in 1576. The rich Mayor of London, Sir John 
Spencer, bought Crosby Place in 1 594, and during his occu- 
pation M. de Rosny, afterwards Due de Sully, the minister 
of Henry IV., was received here as ambassador, when he 
came over to persuade James I. to preserve the league 
which had existed between Elizabeth, France, and the 
Hollanders, and not to make war with Catholic Spain. In 
his Memoirs he gives a curious account of a scene which 
occurred here in the great hall during his visit. Previous 
ambassadors had brought great disrepute upon their country 
through the excesses committed in London by members of 
their suite, and of these he was determined to prevent a 
recurrence. To his horror, upon the very evening of his 
arrival, he discovered that one of his attendants, going out 
to amuse himself, had murdered an English merchant in a 
brawl in Great St. Helen's. He immediately made the 
whole of his companions and servants range themselves 
against the wall ; and taking a lighted flambeau, he walked 
up to each in turn, and, throwing the light full upon them, 
scrutinised their faces. By his trembling and his livid pale- 
ness it was soon disclosed that a noble young gentleman, 
son of the Sieur de Combaut, was the culprit. He was 
related to the French Ambassador M. de Beaumont, who 
demanded, urged, and entreated his pardon, but in vain. 
Sully declared that Combaut should be beheaded in a few 
minutes. He was finally induced to give him up to the 
Mayor, who saved his life ; but his severity, says Sully, had 
thi^s consequence, that " the English began to love, and the 
French to. fear him more." 

Sir John Spencer, having but a poor opinion of the 
Compton family in that day, positively forbade the first 



CROSBY HALL. 285 

Earl of Northampton to pay his addresses to his daughter, 
who was the greatest heiress in England. One day, at the 
foot of the staircase, Sir John met the baker's boy with his 
covered barrow, and, being pleased at his having come 
punctually when he was ordered, he gave him sixpence; but 
the baker's boy was Lord Northampton in disguise, and in 
the covered barrow he was carrying off the beautiful 
Elizabeth Spencer. When he found how he had been 
duped, Sir John swore that Lord Northampton had seen 
the only sixpence of his money he should ever receive, and 
refused to be reconciled to his daughter. But the next 
year Queen Elizabeth, having expressed to Sir John Spencer 
the sympathy which she felt with his sentiments upon the 
ingratitude of his child, invited him to come and be "gossip" 
with her to a newly-born baby in which she was much 
interested, and he could not refuse ; and it is easy to imagine 
whose that baby was. So the Spencer property came to 
the Comptons after all, and an immense inheritance it has 
been, and Lord Northampton lived to erect the magnificent 
tomb to his " well-deserving father-in-law," where the dis- 
obedient daughter, in everlasting contrition for her fault, 
may be seen kneeling, in a tremendous hoop, at her father's 
feet. 

The rich wife continued to live frequently in Crosby Place, 
and was rather an expensive wife to her husband, especially 
considering the value of money at that time, as may be 
judged from the following letter written soon after her 
marriage. It seems worth giving as characteristic of the 
people, the place, and the times. 

" My sweet Life. Now I have declared to you my mind for the settling 
of your state, I suppose that it were best for me to bethink and consider 



386 WALKS IN LONDON, 

within myself what allowance were meetest for me. I pray and 
beseech you to grant to me, your most kind and loving wife, the sum 
of _^2,6oo quarterly to be paid. Also I would, besides that allowance, 
have ;^6oo quarterly to be paid, for the performance of charitable 
works ; and those things I would not, neither will be, accountable for. 
Also I will have three horses for my own saddle, that none should dare 
to lend or borrow ; none lend but I, none borrow but you. Also I 
would have two gentlewomen, lest one should be sick, or have some 
other let ; also, believe it, it is an indecent thing for a gentlewoman to 
stand mumping alone, when God hath blessed their lord and lady with 
a great estate. Also when I ride a-hunting or a-hawking, or travel 
from one house to another, I will have them attending ; so for either of 
these said women I must and will have for either of them a horse. 
Also I will have six or eight gentlemen ; and I will have my two 
coaches, one lined with velvet to myself, with four very fine horses ; 
and a coach for my women, lined with cloth and laced with gold, other- 
wise with scarlet and laced with silver, with four good horses. Also I 
will have two coachmen, one for my own coach, the other for my women. 
Also, at any time when I travel, I will be allowed not only coaches and 
spare horses for me and my women, but I wiU have such carriages as 
shall be fitting for aU; orderly, not pestering my things with my 
women's, nor theirs with their chamber-maids', nor theirs with their 
wash-maids'. Also, for laundresses, when I travel, I will have them 
sent away before the carriages, to see all safe ; and the chamber-maids 
I will have go before, that the chamber may be ready, sweet, and 
clean. Also, and for that it is undecent for me to crowd myself up 
with my gentleman-usher in my coach, I will have him to have a 
convenient horse to attend me either in city or country. And I must 
have two footmen. And my desire is that you defray all the charges 
for me. And for myself, besides my yearly allowance, I would have 
twenty gowns of apparel, six of them excellent good ones, eight of 
them for the country, and six other of them very excellent good ones. 
Also I would have to put in my purse ^^2,000 and ;^200, and so you 
to pay my debts. Also I would have ^6,000 to buy me jewels, and 
;^4,ooo to buy me a pearl-chain. Now, seeing I have been and am so 
reasonable unto you, I pray you do find my children apparel and their 
schooling, and all my servants, men and women, their wages. Also I 
will have all my houses furnished, and my lodging-chambers to be 
suited with all such furniture as is fit ; as beds, stools, chairs, suitable 
cushions, carpets, silver warming-pans, cupboards of plate, fair hang- 
ings, and such like. So for my drawing-chambers in all houses, 1 
will have them delicaiely fiamished, both with hangings, couch, canopy, 
glass, carpet, chairs, cusiiions, and all things thereunto belonging. 



I 



GREAT ST. HELENAS. 287 

Also my desire is that you would pay your debts, build up Ashby 
House, and purchase lands, and lend no money, as you love God, 
to my Lord Chamberlain, who would have all, perhaps your life. . . 
So now that I have declared to you what I would have, and what it is 
that I would not have, I pray you, when you be an earl, to allow me 
;^2,ooo more than I now desire, and double attendance." 

Here for many years lived the Countess of Pembroke, 
immortalised in Ben Jonson's epitaph. In 1640 Crosby 
Place was leased to Sir John Langham. In 1672 it became 
a Presbyterian Meeting House. It was later a packer's 
warehouse, till, in 1831, a subscription was raised to restore 
it as we now see it. 

A passage, one of those obscure and almost secret ways of 
the City, which yet are crowded with foot passengers, leads 
under an archway into and through Crosby Square. It 
passes in front of the noble oriel of the Hall. This is a stately 
room, 54 ft. long, 27 ft. broad, and was once 40 ft. high, but 
this has been curtailed, with a noble perpendicular timber 
roof. The great oriel window has been filled by Willement 
with stained glass armorial bearings of the difierent posses- 
sors of Crosby Place. It is one of the few ancient halls in 
which there is no indication of a raised dais. Above the 
adjoining Council Chamber is the so-called Throne Room, 
with a peculiarly beautiful window. Crosby Place is now 
occupied by the Restaurant of Messrs. Gordon and Co. 

In Crosby Square, al the back of the Hall, are some 
admirable modern buildings of brick and terra-cotta. Crosby 
Hall Chambers, close by, have a good chimney-piece of 

1635- 

Close to Crosby Place, a low timber-corbelled gateway 
leads out of Bishopsgate Street into Great St. IJele?t's, where, 
from the noise and bustle of the great thoroughfare, you 



288 



WALKS IN LONDON. 



suddenly enter upon the quiet of a secluded churchyard, 
filled in early spring with bright green fohage. Here, c. 
1216 the Priory of the Nuns of St. Helen's was founded by 
Willilm Basing, Dean of St. Paul's. The old Hall of the 
Nuns was only removed in 1799. Their Church remains, 




Crosby Hall, Bishopsgate Street. 



and from the number of monuments connected with the 
City of London within its walls it has become a kind of 
Westminster Abbey for the City, and is of the highest 
interest Lately the number of these monuments has been 
greatly increased by the destruction, in 1874, of the ancient 



ST. HELEN'S, BISHOPSGATE, 289 

Church of St. Martin Outwich (so called from its founder, 
John de Otes witch), and the removal to St. Helen's of all 
the tombs which it contained. 

The church consists of two aisles, separated by perpen- 
dicular arches, with chapels attached at the south-east. 
Only a very small portion of the building is used for con 
gregational purposes, and till a few years ago a large part 
of the west end, screened off, and always known as *' The 
Void," was only used for funerals. The whole building is 
surrounded with monuments. An inscription over the west 
door reminds us that " This is none other than the house 
of God," but the usual entrance is by the handsome Jaco- 
bean door on the south side of the building. The small 
altar-tomb with incised figures opposite the entrance is that 
of William and Magdalen Kirwen of 1594. On the left 
of the door is the stately alabaster tomb of the rich Sir 
John Spencer (1609), raised by Lord Northampton to his 
"well-deserving father-in-law." "Some thousand men in 
mourning cloakes " assisted at his funeral.* The figures 
of Sir John and his wife (Alicia Bromfeld) repose under a 
double canopy ; the heiress daughter, almost eclipsed in the 
immensity of her hoop, kneels at a desk at their feet. Next 
is the tomb of Dame Abigail Lawrence (1682), "the tender 
mother of ten children, nine of whom she suckled at her 
breast." Opposite, on the north wall, is the tomb of John 
Robinson, alderman, and merchant of the Staple, with 
Christian his wife (1592, 1599), who were "happy in nine 
sonnes and seaven daughters " : all this family are kneel- 
ing behind their parents at a faldstool. Beyond this is an 
exquisite Gothic canopy (from St. Martin Outwich) of Pur- 

• Letter from Mr. John Beaulieu to Mr. Turnbull. March 82, 1609 — 1610 
VOL, L U 



290 WALKS IN LONDON. 

beck marble, over the tomb of Alderman Hugh Pemberton 
and his wife Katerina (1500;. 

Here the line of monuments is broken by a great tomb 
like a house, to Francis Bancroft, founder of the Mile End 
Almshouses, who " settled his estate in London and Middle- 
sex for the beautifying and keeping in repair of this monu- 
ment for ever." It is very ugly, but very curious. Being 
the property of the Drapers' Company, when a new Master 
is appointed, he generally pays his respects to Francis 
Bancroft, for the tomb can be entered by a door, and 
the lid of the coffin turns back, displaying the skeleton. 
Bancroft was so unpopular as a city magistrate in his 
life-time, that the people pealed the bells at his funeral, 
and tried to upset the coffin on its way to the grave. 
He desired that for a hundred years a loaf of bread and 
a bottle of wine might be placed in his grave every year 
on the anniversary of his death, because he was con- 
vinced that before that time he should awake from his 
death-sleep and require it. The hundred years have now- 
expired. 

Beyond Bancroft's tomb are a staircase and a door, 
which formerly communicated with two stories of the 
convent. There, against the wall, are the tombs of Wil- 
liam Bond — "Flos Mercatorum " — "a merchant-adventurer, 
and most famous in his age for his great enterprises by sea 
and land" (1576) ; and Martin Bond (1643), governor of 
Tilbury Fort in the time of Elizabeth. He is represented 
sitting in a tent, with sentries outside, and a servant bring- 
ing up a horse. The noble altar-tomb beneath, with a 
raised coat of arms, is that of the great Sir Thomas Gres- 
ham, founder of the Royal Exchange, with the simple in- 



ST, HELEN'S, BISHOPSGATE, 201 

scription, *' Sir Thomas Gresham, Knight, buried December 
ji;, 1579." Above hangs his helmet, carried at his funeral. 
Against the wall is the quaint coloured monument of Sir 
Andrew Judde, Lord Mayor (1558), founder of the Gram- 
mar School at Tunbridge — 

** To Russia and Muscovia, 

To Spayne, Germany, without fable, 
Travelled he by land and sea, 

Both Mayor of London and Staple." 

The great canopied tomb close by is that of Sir William 
Pickering, *' famous in learning, arts, and warfare," and, 
moreover, very handsome, which caused him to stand so 
high in the favour of Elizabeth, that he (a simple knight) 
was at one time deemed to have a fair chance of ob- 
taining the hand which was refused to the kings of Spain 
and Sweden. He died at Pickering House in St. Mary 
Axe in 1574. His son is commemorated on the same 
monument. 

The beautiful Gothic niche behind Gresham's tomb has 
a kind of double grille of stone — " the Nuns' Grate " — 
which is believed to have been intended to allow refractory 
nuns* to hear a faint echo of the mass from the crypt be- 
neath. In the " Nuns' Aisle," every Sunday morning, a dole 
of fresh loaves — " good sweet wheaten bread " — lies waiting 
on a clean white cloth for the poor, bequeathed to them by 
a humble benefactor of the early part of the seventeenth 
century, whose dust lies below. 

• That the life of the Black Nuns of St. Helen's was not altogether devoid of 
amusements we may gather from the " Constitutiones" given them by the Dean 
and Chapter of St. Paul's — " also we enjoyne you, that all daunsyng and revelng 
be utterly forborne among you, except at Christmasse, and other honest tymys of 
recreacyone^ among yourselfe usyd, in absence of seculars in alle wyse." 



292 



WALKS IN LONDON, 



On tlie wall above the Nuns' Grate is a monument 
erected in 1877 to the memory of Alberico Gentili, who, 
when driven to England by the religious persecutions of the 
latter part ot the sixteenth century, established his reputa- 
tion as a great international jurist by his famous work, " De 
Jure Belli." The register of St. Helen's mentions the burial 
of his father, Matteo, " near the cherry-tree," and that of the 
son " at the feet of Widow Coombs, near the gooseberry 




Tomb of Sir John Crosb}-, St. Helen's. 



'^xaivyrS 



tree " — i.e. in the convent garden, as near to the back of this 
monument as can be identified. 

Passing the altar, we reach the noble tomb of Sir John 
Crosby (1475) ^^<^ ^^^ ^^^^ Anneys — he wearing an alder- 
man's mantle over plate armour, and with a collar of suns 
and roses, the badge of the House of York, round his neck. 
The lady has a most remarkable headdress. Steps lead 
down into the Chapel of the Virgin, almost paved with 



ST. HELEN'S, BISHOPSGATE. 293 

brasses, the best being that of John Lementhorp (15 10) in 
armour; and those of Nicholas Wootton (1482) and John 
Brent (145 1), rectors of St. Martin Outwich, removed from 
that church. In the centre of the chapel is the fine tomb 
of John de Oteswitch and Mary his wife, of the time of 
Henry IV., founders of St. Martin Outwich. An admir- 
able little figure of a girl with a book, of old Italian work- 




St. Helena. 

manship, on a bracket, is said to be intended for St. 
Helena. The ancient altar-stone and sedilia remain. 

In the Chapel of the Holy Ghost is the altar-tomb of Sir 
Julius Caesar, the son of Pietro Maria Adelmare and Paola 
Cesarino of Treviso. He was made Master of Requests 
(1590) and Master of St. Catherine's Hospital (1596) by 
Elizabeth, was knighted at Greenwich by James I. in 1603, 



294 WALKS IN LONDON, 

made Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1606, and Master 
of the Rolls in 16 10. He was "the charitable Sir Julius 
Caesar " of Izaak Walton.* The tomb was executed in the 
life-time of Sir Julius by Nicholas Stone, the sculptor of 
Dr. Donne's monument in St. Paul's. On the top is a 
scroll of black marble representing a parchment deed, with 
a seal appendant, by which Caesar covenants willingly to pay 
the debt of nature, when it shall please God to require it. 
The deed is signed Feb. 27, 1634, and the debt was paid 
April 18, 1636. But the Latin inscription is too curious 
to omit — 

" Omnibus Xri fidelibus ad quos hoc presens scriptum pervenerit ; 
sciatis, me Julium Adelmare alias Csesarem militem utriusq. juris 
doctorem Elizabeth ae Reginae supremae curiae Admiralitatis Judicem et 
unum e magistris libellorum : Jacobo Regi e privatis consiliariis, cancel- 
larium Scaccarii et sacrorum sereniorum Magistrum hac presenti carta 
mea confirmasse, me adiuvente divino nuraine Naturae debitum libenter 
soluturum quam primum Deo placuerit." 

The stalls on the north of the chancel are the ancient 
seats of the nuns. A picturesque bit of carving against a 
pillar bears the arms and marked the seat of Sir John 
Lawrence, Lord Mayor, 1665. 

On the north wall is the tomb (from St. Martin Out- 
wich) of Alderman Richard Staper (1598), "the greatest 
merchant in his tyme, and the chiefest actor in the dis- 
coueri of the trades of Turkey and East India, a man 
humble in prosperity, payneful and ever ready in the 
affayres publicque, and discreetely careful of his private." 
The famous Robert Hooke, philosopher and mechanic, and 
Curator of the Royal Society, who died in Gresham College 
in 1702, is buried in this church without a monument. He 

• See Walton's " Life of Sir Herry Wotton." 



ST. HELEN'S PLACE. 295 

was thfi inventor of the first efficient air-pump, of the pen- 
dulum spring of a watch, of the circular pendulum adapted 
by Watt as his "governor of the steam-engine," and of the 
watch-wheel cutting machine. The first idea of a tele- 
graph was originated by him.* 

From the south porch of the church a labyrinthine passage 
leads by St. Mary Axe to St. Andrew Undershaft, of which 
there is a picturesque view where the passage opens upon 
the street. Several of the houses which look upon St. 
Helen's Churchyard deserve notice. No. 2 has a rich door- 
way, and good staircase of Charles I.'s time ; Nos. 8 and 9 
are subdivisions of a fine brick house of 1648, probably by 
Inigo Jones ; and in No. 9 are a handsome chimney-piece 
and staircase of carved oak. The Almshouses, built in 1551 
by Sir Andrew Judde, whose tomb we have seen, sti'lJ 
exist here, but were rebuilt in 1729. 

The next turn out of Bishopsgate Street leads into St. 
Helen's Place, near the end of which is the modern Hall of 
tJie Leathersellers Co7npatiy^ incorporated by Richard II. It 
stands upon the still-preserved crypt of St. Helen's Priory. 
At the beginning of this century a curious fountain with 
the figure of a mermaid, sculptured by Caius Gabriel Cibber 
in 1779, in payment of a fine to the company, stood in the 
court in front of it ; but it disappeared many years ago. 

On the opposite side of Bishopsgate Street is the ancient 
hostelry of the Green Dragon^ with wooden galleries over- 
hanging its courtyard. The curious Inn of The Four Swans 
adjoining has been rebuilt and spoilt. 

Near this on the left, with buildings extending to Broad 

* The history of this church has been pubHshed in "Annals of St. Helen's, 
Bishopsgate," edited by the Rev. J. E. Cox, 1877. 



2Qb WALKS IN LONDON. 

Street, stood Gresham College, founded in honour of Sii 
Thomas Gresham, who gave the Royal Exchange to the 
City on condition that the Corporation would institute 
lectures on Divinity, Civil Law. Astronomy, Music, 
Geometry, Rhetoric, and Physic, to be delivered in his 
dwelling-house, which he bequeathed for the purpose. 

Many eminent men were professors of this college, and 
their learned weekly meetings in 1645 gave birth to the 
Royal Society. During the time of the Commonwealth, 
Sir Christopher Wren was Professor of Astronomy here, 
and here he made his great reflecting telescope. On April 
22, 1662, Charles II. formally constituted the college by 
the title of " The President, Council, and Fellows of the 
Royal Society of London for the Improvement of Natural 
Knowledge." Quaint and credulous were many of the 
inquiries of these old philosophers, who wrote to ask one 
of their foreign correspondents to ascertain " if it were 
true that diamonds grew again where they were digged out," 
and to find out "what river in Java turns wood into 
stone ; " and who preserved in their museum a bone taken 
out of a mermaid's head, and issued reports of a mountain 
cabbage three hundred feet high. Charles II. was often 
amused with these vagaries. Butler, who laughs at the 
attempts of the society — • 

" To measure wind and weigh the air, 
To turn a circle to a square, 
And in the braying of an ass 
Find out the treble and the bass, 
If mares neigh altOy and a cow 
In double diapason low " — 

especially satirises Wilkins, afterwards Bishop of Chester, 
one of the professors, who believed that a new world was 



GRESHAM COLLEGE, 297 

to be discovered in the liioon and that it would be reached 
by flying machines. It was this Wilkins who, when a great 
lady required of him how he would contrive to bait upon 
the journey, replied that he was amazed that she who had 
herself built so many castles in the air should ask him such 
a question. In 1675 Samuel Pepys was President of the 
Royal Society in Gresham College. Isaac Newton, after- 
wards President, was here " excused from the weekly con- 
tribution of a shilling, on account of his low circum- 
stances." 

Gresham College was a noble building of brick and 
stone, " with open courts and covered walks, which seemed 
all so well suited for such an intention, as if Sir Thomas 
had it in view at the time he built the house." * The open 
archway towards the stables was decorated with two figures, 
the one standing with a drawn sword over the other upon 
his knees. Dr. Woodward, famous as an early geologist, 
fought a duel with Dr. Mead, the great physician and 
botanist under that porch. His foot slipped and he 
fell. " Will you beg your hfe ? " demanded Mead. " No, 
doctor, certainly not, till I am your patient," returned the 
implacable Woodward. 

After the Fire, which it escaped, Gresham College was 
temporarily used as an Exchange, and its Professors' lodg- 
ings were occupied by the City courts and offices, its piazza 
by the shops of the Exchange tenants, and its quadrangle 
by the merchants' meetings — "thus Gresham College 
became an epitome of this great city, and the centre of all 
affairs, both public and private, which were then transacted 
in it." * When the Exchange was rebuilt the Royal Society 

• Ward. " Lives of the Professors of Gresham College.*' 



298 WALKS IN LONDON, 

returned to the College and continued to hold their meet- 
ings there till they moved to Crane Court in 17 10. From 
that time the College fell into decay, and in 1768 it was 
sold to the Commissioners of Excise, and an Excise Office 
was built upon part of its site. 

Almost concealed by its parasitic houses, so that we 
might easily pass it unobserved, is (right) the Gothic arch 
which forms an entrance to the solemn little Church of St. 
Ethelburgay dedicated to the daughter of King Ethelbert, 
one of the few churches which survived the Fire. It con- 
tains some good fragments of old stained glass, and its 
existence is mentioned as early as 1366. At the junction 
of Camomile and Wormwood Streets, a large episcopal 
mitre on a house-wall marks the site of the old Gate of 
the City called Bishops' Gate. Tradition ascribed the 
foundation of this gate (frequently rebuilt) to St. Erken- 
wald in 675, and the Bishops of London had an ancient 
right to levy one stick from every cart laden with wood 
which passed beneath it, in return for which they were 
obliged to supply the hinges of the gate. Beyond this, the 
street is called Bishopsgate Without. 

On the left of Bishopsgate Without is St. Botolph's Church, 
an ugly building of 1728. It occupies the site of an earlier 
edifice, one of the four churches at the gates, dedicated to 
this popular English saint, who travelled with his brother 
Adulph into Gaul, and coming back with accounts of the 
religious institutions he had seen there, and recommenda- 
tions from two English princesses then in France, sisters 
of Ethelmund, King of the East Saxons, was given a 
piece of land in Lincolnshire by that prince — " a for- 
saken uninhabited desert, where nothing but devills and 



SIR PAUL PINDAR'S HOUSE, 7<^ 

goblins were thought to dwell ; but St. Botolphe, with the 
virtue and sygne of the holy crosse, freed it from the pos- 
session of those hellish inhabitants, and by the means and 
help of Ethelmund, built a monastery therein." Of this 
Benedictine monastery, of which Boston, Botolph's town, 
is supposed to mark the site, Botolph was abbot, and 
there he died in the odour of sanctity, J une, 680. 

The church contains the monument (a tablet with a 
flaming vase) of Sir Paul Pindar (1650), a famous merchant 
and Commissioner of the Customs in Charles II.'s time. 
It is inscribed to " Sir Paul Pindar, Kt., his Majesty's Am- 
bassador to the Turkish Emperor, Anno Dom. 161 1, and 
nine years resident : faithful in negotiations foreign and 
domestick, eminent for piety, charity, loyalty, and prudence ; 
an inhabitant twenty-six years, and bountiful benefactor to 
this parish. He died the 22nd of August, 1650, aged 84 
years." The sunny churchyard is now a garden full of 
ornamental ducks and pigeons. It contains the tomb of 
Coya Shawsware, a Persian merchant, around which his 
relations sang and recited funeral elegies, morning and 
evening, for months after his death. 

It is not far down Bishopsgate Street to (left) the 
beautiful old House of Sir Paul Pindar, "worthie bene- 
factor to the poore," with overhanging oriel windows, very 
richly decorated with panel-work, forming a subject well 
worthy of the artist's pencil. The house was begun by 
Sir Paul Pindar on his return from Italy at the end of 
the reign of Elizabeth. He was born in 1566. His 
reputation of the richest merchant of the kingdom brought 
him frequent visits here from James I. and Charles I. to 
beg for a loan in their necessities. At the reques; of the 



300 



WALKS IN LONDON. 



Turkey Company he was sent by James I. as ambassador 
to Constantinople, where he did much to improve the 
English trade in the Levant. On his return in 1620, he 
brought back with him, amongst other treasures, a great 
diamond which was valued at ;£'30,ooo, and which he was 
wont to lend to James I. to wear at the opening of his 




Sir Paul Pindar's House, Bishopsgate. 



Parliaments ; it was afterwards sold to Charles I. At the 
time of the civil wars it was Sir Paul Pindar who provided 
funds for the escape of the Queen and her children. He 
lived to give ;^i 0,000 for the restoration of St. Paul's, which 
was begun in Charles II.'s reign before the Great Fire. When 
he died the King owed no less than ;£"3oo.ooo to Sir Paul 
and the other Commissioners of the Customs, and Pindar's 



MOORFIELDS, 301 

affairs were found to be in such confusion, that his executor, 
William Toomer, was unable to bear the responsibility of his 
trust, and destroyed himself. When the great merchant was 
living, the house had a park attached to it behind, of which 
one of the richly ornamented lodges and some old mul- 
berry trees, planted to please James I., existed till a few 
years ago in Half-Moon Alley. Now all is closely hemmed 
in by houses. 

The name of Devonshire Street (on the right) commemo- 
rates the town-house of the Cavendishes, Earls of Devon- 
shire, who lived in Bishopsgate during the seventeenth 
century, and some of whom are buried in St. Botolph's. 
The corner house has a chimney-piece with the arms of 
Henry Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton, the adored friend 
to whom the sonnets of Shakspeare are addressed. 

[To the left, by Liverpool Street, are Finsbury Circus 
and Finsbury Square^ occupying the site of Moorfields, a 
marshy ground which was a favourite Sunday walk with the 
citizens. Here, says Shadwell, '* you could see Haberdashers 
walking with their whole fireside." Shakspeare alludes to 
the popularity of this walk in his Henry IV. — 

** And giv'st such sarcenet surety for thy oaths, 
As if thou never walk'st farther than Finsbury." 

John Keats the Poet was born at No. 28 on the Pave- 
ment in Moorfields in 1795, being the son of a livery stable 
keeper, who had enriched himself by a marriage with his 
master's daughter. 

Tradition and an old ballad say that the name of 
Finsbury is derived from two ladies, daughters of a gallant 
knight who went to the Crusades ; — 



302 WALKS IN LONDON, 

** And charged both his daughters ^ 

Unmarried to remain 
Till he from blessed Palestine 

Returned back again : 
And then two loving husbands 

For them he would attain." 

The eldest of them, Mary, became a nun of Bethlehem, 
spending day and night in prayer for her father — 

" And in the name of Jesus Christ 
A holy cross did build 
Which some have seen at Bedlam-gate 
Adjoining to Moorfield." 

The younger, Dame Annis, opened a well — 

" Where wives and maidens daily came, 
To wash, from far and near." 

So the sisters lived on 

" Till time had changed their beauteous cheeks 
And made them wrinkled old." 

But when the King of England returned from the Crusades, 
it was only the heart of their brave father which he brought 
back to his loving daughters, which they solemnly buried, 
and gave the name of their father to its resting-place — 

** Old Sir John Fines he had the name 

Being buried in that place, 
Now, since then, called Finsbury, 

To his renown and grace ; 
Which time to come shall not outwear 

Nor yet the same deface. 

And likewise when those maidens died 

They gave those pleasant fields 
Unto our London citizens, 

Which they most bravely hield. 
And now are made most pleasant waiks, 

That great contentment yield. 



BUNHILL FIELDS, 303 

Where lovingly both man and wife 

May take the evening air, 
And London dames to dry their cloaths 

May hither still repair 
For that intent most freely given 

By these two damsels fair." 

Bloomfield Street, Moorfields, may be noticed as contain- 
ing the Museum of the London Missionary Society (open 
Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, from 10 to 3 in 
winter, and 10 to 4 in summer). It is of little general 
interest. 

Beyond Finsbury Square, by the Finsbury Pavement — 
once the only firm path in the marshy district of Moorfields 
— we reach, in the City Road (left), the modern castellated 
buildings of the Artillery Barracks, which are the head- 
quarters of the London Militia — the *' London Trained 
Bands " of our Civil Wars, which were the mainstay of the 
Parliamentary army, being the successors of the ** Archers 
of Finsbury," incorporated by Henry VIII., but having their 
first origin in the Guild of St. George, established in the 
reign of Edward I. The artillery ground here is the Campus 
Martins — the Champ de Mars — of London. 

Just beyond the Barracks (divided by the street) is the 

vast burial-ground of Bufihill Fields, Anthony Wood's 

*' fanatical burial-place," and Southey's " Campo Santo of 

the Dissenters," originally called "Bone-hill Fields" from 

having been one of the chief burial-places during the Great 

Plague. 

Open, Week-days, 9 to 7 in summer, 9 to 4 in winter. 
Sundays, I to 7 in summer, i to 4 in winter. 

The burial-ground is now closed as a cemetery, but the 
forest of tombs on the left, shaded by young trees, remains 



304 



WALKS IN LONDON. 



a green oasis in one of the blackest parts of London. 
Near the centre of " the Puritan Necropolis " a w hite 
figure, lying aloft upon a high (modern) altar-tomb, marks 
the Grave of John Bunya?i (1628 — 1688), whither all will 
at once direct their steps, for who does not, with Cowper — 

" Revere the man whose pilgrim marks the road, 
And guides the progress of the soul to God." 




John Bunyan's Tomb. 



Bunyan wrote as many books as the sixty years of his life, 
but is chiefly honoured as the author of " The Pilgrim's 
Progress," which was written during his imprisonment as a 
dissenter in Bedford jail, where "with only two books — the 
Bible and * Foxe's Book of Martyrs ' — he employed his 
time for twelve years and a half in preaching to, and pray- 
ing with, his fellow-prisoners, in writing several of his 
works, and in making tagged laces for the support of him- 



yOHN BUNYAN'S TOMB. 305 

self and his family." * Being released in 1672, he spent 
his remaining years in exhorting his dissenting brethren to 
holiness of life, and, when James II. proclaimed liberty of 
conscience for dissenters, opened a meeting-house at Bed- 
ford. He died on Snow Hill from a cold taken on a mis- 
sionary excursion, in the house of John Stud wick, a grocer, 
who was buried near him in 1697. 

" I know of no book, the Bible excepted, as above all comparison, 
which I, according to my judgment and experience, could so safely 
recommend as teaching and enforcing the,whole saving truth, according 
to the mind that was in Christ Jesus, as the Pilgrim's Progress. It is, 
in my conviction, incomparably the best Summa Theologiae Evangelicae 
ever produced by a writer not miraculously inspired. . . It is com- 
posed in the lowest style of EngUsh, without slang or false grammar. 
If you were to polish it, you would at once destroy the reality of the 
vision. For works of imagination shoiild be written in very plain 
language ; the more purely imaginative they are, the more necessary it 
is to be plain. This wonderful book is one of the few books which 
may be read repeatedly, at different times, and each time with a new 
and a different pleasure." — Coleridge, 

" The style of Bunyan is delightful to every reader, and invaluable as 
a study to every person who wishes to obtain a wide command over the 
English language. The vocabulary is the vocabulary of the common 
people. There is not an expression, if we except a few technical terms 
of theolog}', which would puzzle the rudest peasant. We have 
observed several pages which do not contain a single word of more 
than two syllables. Yet no writer has said more exactly what he 
meant to say. For magnificence, for pathos, for vehement exhortation, 
for subtle disquisition, for every purpose of the poet, the orator, and 
the divine, this homely dialect, the dialect of plain working-men, was 
perfectly sufficient. There is no book in our Hterature on which we 
could so readily stake the fame of the old unpolluted EngUsh language ; 
no book which shews so well how rich that language is in its own 
proper wealth, and how little it has been improved by all that it has 
borrowed. , . We are not afraid to say that, though there were 
many clever men in England during the latter half of the seventeenth 
century, there were only two great creative minds. One of these 
minds produced the Paradise Lost, the other the Pilgiini's Progress." 
— T. B. Macaulay. 

• Dr. Barlow. 

VOL. I. X 



3o6 WALKS IN LONDON. 

Bunyan himself, in the preface to the "Holy War," 
describes the way in which his work grew : — 

" It came from mine own heart, so to my head, 
And thence into my fingers trickeled ; 
So to my pen, from whence immediately, 
On paper I did dribble it daintily." 

"The spot where Bunyan lies is still regarded by the Nonconformists 
with a feeling which seems scarcely in harmony with the stem spirit of 
their theology. Many puritans, to whom the respect paid by Roman 
Catholics to the reliques and tombs of their saints seemed childish or 
sinful, are said to have begged with their dying breath that their coffins 
might be placed as near as possible to the coffin of the author of the 
' Pilgrim's Progress.' ^^—Macaulay. 

Just beyond the tomb of Bunyan are altar-tombs to 
Henry Cromwell, Richard Cromwell, and William Crom- 
well. General Fleetwood, who had married that severe 
republican Bridget Cromwell, General Ireton's widow, has 
an altar-tomb nearer the gate. 

At a turn of the path, beyond the tombs of the Crom- 
wells, is the headstone of Susannah Wesley, the youngest 
daughter of Samuel Annesley, the ejected Vicar of St. Giles, 
Cripplegate, and widow of the Vicar of Epworth. She was 
the mother of nineteen children, of whom the most re- 
nowned were John and Charles. "The former" (in the 
words of her epitaph) "under God being the founder of 
the societies of the people called Methodists." 

" No man was ever more suitably mated than the elder Wesley. The 
wife whom he chose was, like himself, the child of a man eminent 
among the non-conformists, and, like himself, in early youth she had 
chosen her own path : she had examined the controversy between the 
Dissenters and the Church of England with conscientious diligence, and 
satisfied herself that the schismatics were in the wrong. The dispute, 
it must be remembered, related wholly to discipline ; but her enquiries 
had not stopt there, and she had reasoned herself into Socinianism, 



TOMB OF SUSANNAH WESLEY. 307 

from which she was reclaimed by her husband. She was an admirable 
woman, of highly-improved mind, and of a strong and masculine 
understanding, an obedient wife, an exemplary mother, a fervent 
Christian." 

Mrs. Wesley died in 1742. 

" Arriving in London from one of his circuits, John Wesley found 
his mother * on the borders of eternity ; but she had no doubt or fear, 
nor any desire but, as soon as God should call, to depart and be with 
Christ.' On the third day after his arrival, ♦ he perceived that her 
change was near.' * I sate down,' he says, * on the bed-side. She was 
in her last conflict, unable to speak, but I believe quite sensible. Her 
look was calm and serene, and her eyes frxed upward, while we com- 
mended her soul to God. From three to four the silver cord was 
loosing, and the wheel breaking at the cistern ; and then, without any 
struggle, or sigh, or groan, the soul was set at Hberty. We stood 
round the bed, and fulfilled her last request, uttered a little before she 
lost her speech : " Children, as soon as I am released, sing a psalm of 
praise to God." ' He performed the funeral service himself, and thus 
feelingly describes it: 'Almost an innumerable company of people 
being gathered together, about five in the afternoon I committed to the 
earth the body of my mother to sleep with her fathers. The portion 
of Scripture from which I afterwards spoke was, " I saw a great white 
throne, and Him that sate on it, from whose face the earth and the 
heaven fled away, and there was found no place for them. And I saw 
the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were 
opened, and the dead were judged out of those things which were 
written in the books, according to their works." It was one of the 
most solemn assemblies I ever saw, or expect to see, on this side 
eternity.' " — Southeys Life of Wesley. 

The stanzas succeeding the verses which her ^ons placed 
upon the tomb of Susannah Wesley refer to her belief that 
she had received an assurance of the forgiveness of her sins 
at the moment when her son-in-law, Hall, was administermg 
the Last Supper to her — 

«' In sure and steadfast hope to rise 
And claim her mansion in the skies, 
A Christian here her flesh laid dov.a, 
The cross exchanging for a crown. 



^o8 WALKS IN LONDON. 

True daughter of affliction she, 
% Inured to pain and misery, 

Mourn'd a long night of griefs and fe!}T% 
A legal night of seventy years. 

The Father then reveal'd his Son, 
Him in the broken bread made known, 
She knew and felt her sins forgiven, 
And foimd the earnest of her Heaven. 

M^et for the fellowship above, 
She heard the call, * Arise, my Love ! ' 
I come, her dying looks replied. 
And lamb-Kke as her Lord she died." 

Around the spot where we may picture the vast multitude 
gathered amid the tombs and Wesley preaching by his 
mother's grave, the most eminent of the earlier Noncon- 
formists had already been buried. Of these perhaps the 
most remarkable was Dr. John Owen (1616 — 1683), "the 
Great Dissenter," at one time Dean of Christ Church, and 
Vice- Chancellor of Oxford when Oliver Cromwell was 
Chancellor, the divine who preached before the House of 
Commons on the day after the execution of Charles I. He 
was the author of eighty works ! 

" The first sheet of his * Meditations on the Glory of Christ ' had 
passed through the press under the superintendence of the Rev. 
William Payne . . . and, on that person calling on him to inform 
him of the qrcumstance on the morning of the day he died, he 
exclaimed, with uplifted hands and eyes looking upward, * I am glad 
to hear it ; but, O brother Payne ! the long-wished for day is come at 
last, in which I shall see that glory in another manner than I have ever 
done, or was capable of doing, in this world.' " 

Amongst the graves of the three hundred notable Non- 
conformist ministers buried here, we may notice those of 
Dr. Thomas Goodwin (1587— 1643), the President of 
Magdalen, ejected at the Restoration, who had prayed by 



TOMBS OF NONCONFORMIST MINISTERS. 309 

Oliver Cromwell's death-bed, and had asked a blessing 
upon Richard Cromwell at his proclamation as Protector ; 
of Hansard Knollys, the Baptist, author of " Flaming Fire 
in Zion " (1691) ; of Nathaniel Mather (brother of Increase 
Mather), celebrated for his sermons (1697) J of the learned 
Theophilus Gale (1678), who was ejected from his fellow- 
ship at Magdalen for refusing to conform at the Restoration, 
author of the " Court of the Gentiles," and many other 
works ; of the zealous itinerant preacher Vavasour Powell, 
" the Whitefield of Wales " (1671), " an indefatigable enemy 
of monarchy and episcopacy," who died in the Fleet prison, 
where he had been confined for eleven years ; of Thomas 
Rosewell (1092), the ejected rector of Sutton Mandeville, 
who was arraigned for high treason, condemned by Judge 
Jeffreys, and pardoned by the king ; of Thomas DooHttle, 
the much-persecuted minister of Monkwell Street (1707); 
of Dr. Daniel Williams, founder of the Williams Library 
(17 1 6); of Daniel Neal, author of the "History of the 
Puritans" (1743 — 4) ; of Thomas Bradbury, who refused the 
bribe of a bishopric under Anne, and who claimed to be the 
first minister who proclaimed George I. from the pulpit 
(1759) ; and of Dr. John Conder (1781), with the epitaph, 
by himself — " Peccavi, Resipui, Confidi; Amavi, Requiesco, 
Resurgam ; Et, ex gratia Christi, ut ut indignus, regnabo." 
One of the most interesting tombs is that of Dr. Nathaniel 
Lardner (1684 — 1768), one of the most eminent of Non- 
conformist divines, author of the " Credibility of Gospel 
History." 

" Dr. Lardner's extensive and accurate investigations into the 
credibility of the Gospel history have left scarcely anything more to be 
done or desired."— Or;/z^'j- Bibl. Bib. 



3»o WALKS IN LONDON. 

** No clergyman or candidate for the ministry can afford to be with- 
out Dr. Lardner's Works, and no intelligent lajmnan should be without 
them. If any man — not idiotic, or destitute of ordinary good sense — 
can read Lardner's Credibility and still disbelieve the Gospel, it is 
absurd for him to pretend to believe the most common facts of history, 
or, indeed, the existence of anything beyond the cognizance of his 
five senses." — Austin Alibone. 

Visitors must seek on the northern side of the burial- 
ground for the tomb of the famous Independent minister 
Dr. Isaac Watts (1674 — 1748), author of the well-known 
hymns and many other works. 

" Every Sabbath, in every region of the earth where his native 
tongue is spoken, thousands and tens of thousands of voices are sending 
the sacrifices of prayer and praise to God in the strains which he pre- 
pared for them a century ago." — James Montgomery. 

" It is sufficient for Watts to have done better than others what no 
man has done well, . . He is at least one of the few poets with 
whom youth and ignorance may be safely pleased ; and happy will be 
that reader whose mind is disposed by his verse, or his prose, to 
imitate him in aU but his nonconformity, to copy his benevolence to 
man and his reverence to God." — Dr. Johnson. 

Not far from the grave of Watts, a modern pyramid 
marks that of Daniel de Foe (166 1 — 1731), son of a butcher 
in St. Giles, Cripplegate, writer of many works, but re- 
nowned as the author of " Robinson Crusoe." 

" He must be acknowledged as one of the ablest, as he was one of 
the most captivating, writers of which this isle can boast." — Chalmers. 

" Robinson Crusoe is delightfiil to all ranks and classes. It is capital 
kitchen reading, and equally worthy from its deep interest, to find a 
place in the libraries of the wealthiest and the most learned." — Charles 
Lamb. 

Amongst those, not ministers, who have been buried here 
in the last century, are Joseph Ritson, the Antiquary (1803); 



BUNHILL FIELDS. 311 

John Home Tooke, the Reformer (1812); Lady Anne 
Erskine, me tiUbtee of Lady Huntingdon (1804) ; Joseph 
Hughes, the Founder of the Bible Society; David Nasmyth, 
the Founder of City Missions (1839); Abraham Rees, the 
Editor of "Chambers* Encyclopaedia" (1B25); William 
Blake, the painter and engraver of ''marvellous strange 
pictures, visions of his brain"* (1828); and Thomas 
Stothard, R.A. (1834). 

The inscription on the tomb of Dame Mary Page (1728) 
tells that " In 67 months she was tapped dd times and had 
taken away 240 gallons of water, without ever repining at 
her case or ever fearing the operation." 

Milton was living in Artillery Walk, Bunhill Fields (now 
destroyed), in i666. 

" An ancient clergyman of Dorsetshire, Dr. Wright, found John 
Milton in a small chamber hung with rusty green, sitting in an elbow 
chair, and dressed neatly in black ; pale, but not cadaverous ; his hands 
and fingers gouty, and with chalk stones. He used also to sit in a 
grey, coarse cloth coat, at the door of his house in Bunhill Fields, in 
warm sunny weather, to enjoy the fresh air ; and so, as well as in his 
room, received the visits of people of distinguished parts as well as 
quahty." — J. Richardson. 

George Whitefield preached in Bunhill Fields (April 30, 
1760) at the grave of Robert Tilling, who was hung at 
Tyburn for the murder of his master, Mr. Lloyd, a Bishops- 
gate merchant. He frequently preached in the open air 
in Moorfields to congregations of from twenty to thirty 
thousand persons, and it was there especially, as he wrote 
lo Lady Huntingdon, that " he went to meet the devil." In 
1 741 a wooden tabernacle was built for him, which was 
superseded by a brick building in 1753, but he continued, 

• Charles Lamb. 



3»i WALKS IN LONDON, 

when the weather allowed, to address in the open air larger 
congregations than any building, would contain. His open- 
air church was like a battle-field, Merry-Andrews exhibiting 
their tricks close by to draw off his congregations, recruiting 
sergeants with their drums marching through the midst of 
his hearers, showers of dirt, eggs, &c., being perpetually 
hurled at him. Whitefield's last sermon in an English place 
of worship was preached in the tabernacle of Moorfields 
(now pulled down) August 31, 1769. 

Behind Bunhill Fields (west), in Coleman Street, is the 
entrance to the dismal Friends' Burial Ground, which was 
greatly reduced in its dimensions for building purposes in 
1877, the bones in the appropriated portion of the ceme- 
tery being removed to the neighbourhood of the grave of 
George Fox (1624 — 1690), founder of the Society of 
Quakers, whose strong religious opinions were formed 
whilst tending his sheep as a shepherd in Leicestershire. 
He became an itinerant preacher in 1647, and his whole 
after-life was devoted, amid many persecutions, to the 
spiritual well-being of his fellow-men. George Fox was 
the only *' Friend " buried with a monument, but his stone 
is now concealed by a Mission Chapel.] 

Far down Bishopsgate Without, Skinner Street (on the 
left) was the centre of the Skinners' trade as early as the 
reign of Richard II. 

On the right is Spitalfields , now densely inhabited by 
weavers. It once belonged to the Priory of St. Mary Spital, 
founded in 1197 by Walter and Rosia Brune. Its old 
name was Lolesworth. Sir Horatio Pallavicini lived here 
in the reign of Elizabeth. Silk weaving was introduced in 
Spitalfields by French emigrants expelled in 1685 on the 



SPITALFIELDS. 313 

revocation of the edict of Nantes. ** Spittlefields and the 
parts adjoining," says Stow, " became a great harbour for 
poor Protestant strangers, Walloons and French, who, as 
in former days, so of late, have been found to become exiles 
from their own country for their religion, and for the avoid- 
ing cruel persecution. Here they found quiet and security, 
and settled themselves in their several trades and occupa- 
tions, weavers especially ; whereby God's blessing is surely 
not only brought upon the parish, by receiving poor 
strangers, but also a great advantage hath accrued to the 
whole nation, by the rich manufacture of weaving silks, 
and stuffs, and camlets, which art they brought along with 
them. And this benefit also to the neighbourhood, that 
these strangers may serve for pattern of thrifty honesty, in- 
dustry, and sobriety." In the year 1687 alone, no less than 
13,500 of these exiles took refuge in England. They so 
thoroughly identified themselves with the nation which 
received them, that many changed their French names into 
English synonyms. Thus Le Noir, became Black ; Le 
Blanc, White ; Le Brun, Brown ; Oiseau, Bird, &c. Many 
historic French names are still to be found in the district — 
Le Sage, Fouche (Anglicised into Futcher), and Racine, 
whose possessor declares himself related to the famous 
dramatist. The mothers of the last generation were often 
to be seen in their old French costumes, and to this hour 
thousands work in their glazed atdcs, such as were used by 
their forefathers on the other side of the Channel, which 
give such a characteristic aspect to the neighbourhood.* 

In a walk through Spitalfields no one will fail to be 
struck with the number of singing-birds kept in the houses, 

• Se<^ the interesting Report of the New Nichol Street Ragged Schools, 1856. 



314 WALKS IN LONDON. 

and for these there is often a large cage near the roof. The 
catching and training of singing-birds is a branch of in- 
dustry peculiar to Spitalfields. The weavers first train their 
call-birds. An amusing article on bird-catching in the 
" Encyclopaedia Metropolitana " says, " The bird-catchers 
frequently lay considerable wagers whose call-birds c?n jerk 
(sing) the longest, as that determines the superiority. They 
place them opposite to each other by an inch of candle, 
and the bird who jerks the oftenest before the candle is 
burnt out wins the wager. We have been informed that 
there have been instances of a bird having given a hundred 
and seventy jerks in a quarter of an huour ; and we have 
known a linnet in such a trial persevere in its emulation 
till it swooned from its perch." 

Spital Square^ a gloomy red brick square of the early 
Georges, marks the site of the old Hospital. The numbei 
of remains dug up here prove that this district was the 
burial-place of Roman London. Elizabeth went to hear 
a sermon at St. Mary Spittal, with two white beais 
following her in a cart, to be baited as soon as it was 
over ! 

In Brick Lane, Spitalfields, is the great Brewery of 
Truman, Hanbury, Buxton, and Co. 

Shoreditch, which joins Spitalfields on the west, was 
originally Soersditch, from " its lord. Sir John Soerditch, 
of Ickenham, an erudite lawyer trusted by Edward IIL," * 
but tradition continues to derive its name from the beauti- 
ful goldsmith's wife, beloved by Edward IV. The tradition 
has probably arisen through the old ballad of " Jane Shore's 
Lament," which ends — 

* Pennant. 



^HOREDITCH, 315 

•* I could not get one bit of bread, 
Whereby my hunger might be fed, 
Nor drink, but such as channels yield, 
Or stinking ditches in tho field. 

Thus weary of my life, at lengthe 
I yielded up my vital strength, 
Within a ditch of loathsome scent, 
Where carrion dogs did much frequent ; 

The which now, since my dying daye, 
Is Shoreditch called, as writers saye ; 
Which is a witness of my sinne. 
For being concubine to a king." ♦ 

Attached to the Church of St. Leonard was the Holy 
well nunnery, founded by Sir Thomas Lovel, who died 
in 1524. Most of its windows bore the lines — 

•* Al ye nunnes in Holywel 
Pray for the soul of Sir Thomas Lovel." 

Sir George Manners, who fought with Henry VIIL at the 
siege of Tournay, was buried under the high-altar. 

Shoreditch has always had an immoral reputation. 
Here Mrs. Milwood, celebrated in the ballad of " George 
Barnwell," lived " next door unto the Gun." " The 
Theatre " and " the Curtain," the only two theatres which 
were in existence when Shakspeare came to London (be- 
tween 1583 and 1592), were both in Shoreditch. "The 
Theatre" was built in 1576 by James Burbage, on land 
leased from one Giles Allen, and by 1577 it had become a 
favourite resort : it was removed by Richard the son of 
James Burbage, that its materials might be used in building 

•Really J^ne Shore, released from her prison of Ludgate on the death of 
Richard III., lived to be eighty, and died 1533. 



3i6 WALKS IN LONDON, 

the Globe Theatre in Southwark. "The Curtain," built 
about the same time as " the Theatre," continued to be used 
till the time of Charles I. : its site is marked by Gloucester 
Street, which was called Curtain Court" till 1745. The 
roof in both these theatres only covered the stage and 
galleries; the central space, for which admission was only 
one penny, was left open to the sky. There is a tradition 
that Shakspeare stood at the doors of the Shoreditch play- 
houses and held the horses of spectators during the per- 
formance. But there is no proof that he was ever reduced 
to this, and before 1597 his "Romeo and Juliet" had been 
acted at "the Curtain," while before December, 1594, he 
was himself an actor, for entries are found in the accounts 
of the Treasury of the Chamber for sums paid " to 
William Kempe, William Shakspeare, and Richard Bur- 
bage, servauntes to the Lord Chamberlayne, for twoe several 
comedies or interludes, shewed by them before her Majestic 
in Christmas tyme." * The theatres in Shoreditch were 
considered as centres of vice. In Stockswood's sermon at 
Paul's Cross, August 24, 1578, the preacher says, "What 
should I speak of beastlye playes, againste which out of 
this place every man crieth out ? I know not how I might 
with the godly learned more especially discommende the 
gorgeous playing-place erected in thefieldes than to terme it, 
as they please to have it called, a theatre, that is even after 
the maner of the olde heathenish theatre at Rome, a shew- 
place of al beastlye and filthie matters." And in May, 
1583, the Lord Mayor wrote to Sir F. Walsingham, 
" Among others we finde one very great and dangerous 
inconvenience, the assemblie of people to playes, beare- 

• See Halliwell's " Illustrations of the Life of Shakspeare." 



BETHNAL GREEN, HACKNEY. 317 

bayling, fencers, and prophane spectacles at the Theatre 
and Curtaine, and other hke places." * 

Beyond Spitalfields to the east is the black poverty 
stricken district of Bethnal Green^ also chiefly inhabited by 
weavers. The whole population is of recent growth. Pepys 
went to Sir William Rider's gardens at Bethnal Green, and 
found there " the largest quantity of strawberries he ever 
saw and very good." Sir W. Rider's was supposed to be 
the house of " the Blind Beggar," so well known from the 
ballad in Percy's " Reliques " — 

" My father, shee said, is soone to be seene, 
The siely blind beggar of Bednall-green, 
That daily sits begging for charitie, 
He is the good father of pretty Bessee. 

His markes and his tokens are knowen very well ; 
He alwayes is led with a dogg and a beU, 
A siely olde man, God knoweth, is hee, 
Yet hee is the father of pretty Bessee."t 

" Bishop's Hall " and " Bonner's Fields " commemorate the 
residence of Bishop Bonner in this locality. 

The district of Hoxton^ beyond Shoreditch, was once 
celebrated for its balsamic wells, and, in the last century, 
in the annals of gardening. Farther east is the populous 
district of Hackney, of which Archbishop Sancroft was vicar. 
Here the popish conspirators assembled at " the Cock," 
Oct. 2, 1661, with the intention of assassinating Charles II. 
on his return from a visit to Sir Thomas Vyner ; but the 
plot was revealed in time, though the conspirators escaped. 

• See The Builder, April 17, 1875. 

•t The beadle ot St. Matthew's, Bethnal Green, has a staflF, of 1669, on the head 
of which, in silver gilt, the story of the Blind Beggar and his daughter is repre- 
lented. 



31 8 WALKS IN LONDON. 

The sign of " the King's Head " at Hackney was changed 
to " Cromwell's Head " under the Commonwealth, for 
which its landlord was whipped and pilloried at the Resto- 
ration, and afterwards called his inn *' King Charles's 
Head." 

Returning down Bishopsgate, on the left is Houndsditch, 
a relic, in its name, of the old foss which encircled the city, 
formerly a natural receptacle for dead dogs, whose filth 
the street was intended to remedy. Richard of Ciren- 
cester says that the body of Edric, the murderer of 
Edmund Ironsides, was thrown into Houndsditch. His 
crime had raised Canute to the throne, but when he came 
to claim his promised reward — the highest position in the 
city — the Danish king replied, " I like the treason, but hate 
the traitor : behead this fellow, and, as he claims my pro- 
mise, place his head on the highest pinnacle of the 
Tower." Edric was then scorched to death with flaming 
torches, his head raised on the highest point of the 
Tower, and his body thrown to the hounds of Hounds 
ditch. 

This is the Jews' quarter — silent on Saturdays, busy on 
Sundays. Houndsditch has long been a street famous for 
its brokers. In his " Every Man in his Humour " Ben 
Jonson speaks of a Houndsditch man as " one of the devil's 
near kinsmen, a broker;" and Beaumont and Fletcher 
allude to the brokers of Dogsditch — 

" More knavery and usury, 
Attd foolery, and trickery, than Dogsditch." 

Cutler Streety on the left, is the ancient centre for the 
cutlers. 



BEVIS MARKS. 



319 



Duke's Fiace, Houndsditch, occupies the site of Christ 
Church Priory, founded in 1108 by Queen Maude. It was 
granted at the Dissolution to Sir Ihomas Audley, Lord 
Chancellor. His daughter married Thomas, Duke of Nor- 
folk (whence the name), and was wont to ride hither 




In Bevis Marks. 



through the city with one hundred horsemen in livery, 
preceded by four heralds. Holbein died in the Duke's 
house. 

Behind Houndsditch on the right runs Bez>is Marks 
(Bury's Marks), from the town-house of the Abbots of Bury 



320 



WALKS IN LONDON. 



St. Edmunds, afterwards "granted to Thomas Heneage the 
father, and Sir Thomas Henrage the son." * 

On the north side of this street, before the Dissolution, 
stood the Hospital of the Brotherhood of St. Augustine 
Papey. Here the sign of the tavern of The Blue Fig, only 
very recently removed, was a strange instance of the 
endurance of the sign of " the Blue Boar," the crest of 
Richard III., who, as Duke of Gloucester, resided close by 
in Crosby Hall. 

• M^tland, ii, 78*. 



CHAPTER IX. 
IN THE HEART OF THE CITY. 

THE labyrinthine but most busy streets which form the 
centre of the City of London to the south of the Royal 
Exchange are filled with objects of interest, though of minor 
interest, amid which it will be difficult to thread our way, 
and impossible to keep up any continuous connection of 
associations. The houses, which have looked down upon 
so many generations of toilers, are often curious in them- 
selves. The City churches for the most part are dying 
a slow death ; their congregations have ebbed and will 
never flow back. Very few are worth visiting for their 
own sakes, yet almost every one contains some tomb or other 
fragment which gives it a historic interest. Dickens vividly 
describes their general aspect and the kind of thoughts 
which are awakened by attending a service in one of these 
queer old churches. 

" There is a pale heap of books in the comer of every pew, and while 
the organ, which is hoarse and sleepy, plays in such a fashion that I 
can hear more of the rusty working of the stops than of the music, I 
look at the books, which are mostly bound in faded baize and stuff. 
They belonged, in 1754, to the Dowgate family. And who were they ? 
Jane Comport must have married young Dowgate, and come into the 
family that way. Young Dowgate was courting Jane Comport wiien 

VOL I. Y 



322 WALKS IN LONDON, 

he gave her lier prayer-book, and recorded the presentatioii in the fly- 
leaf. If Jane were fond of young Dowgate, why did she die and leave 
the book here ? Perhaps at the rickety altar, and before the damp 
Commandments, she. Comport, had taken him, Dowgate, in a flush of 
youthful hope and joy, and perhaps it had not turned out in the long 
run as great a success as was expected. 

" The opening of the service recalls my wandering thoughts. I then 
find to my astonishment that I have been, and still am, taking a strong 
kind of invisible snuff" up my nose, into my eyes, and down my throat. 
I wink, sneeze, and cough. The clerk sneezes ; the clerg5mian winks ; 
the unseen organist sneezes and coughs (and probably winks) ; all our 
little party wink, sneeze, and cough. The snuff" seems to be made of 
the decay of matting, wood, cloth, stone, iron, earth, and something 
else. Is the something else the decay of dead citizens in the vaults 
below ? As sure as death it is ! Not only in the cold damp February 
day, do we cough and sneeze dead citizens, aU through the service, but 
dead citizens have got into the very bellows of the organ and half 
choked the same. We stamp our feet to warm them, and dead citizens 
arise in heavy clouds. Dead citizens stick upon the walls, and lie 
pulverised on the sounding-board over the clergyman's head, and when 
a gust of air comes, tumble down upon him. 

" In the churches about Mark Lane there was a dry whiff of wheat ; 
and I accidentally struck an airy sample of barley out of an aged hassock 
in one of them. From Rood Lane to Tower Street, and thereabouts, 
there was sometimes a subtle flavour of wine ; sometimes of tea. One 
church, near Mincing Lane, smelt like a druggist's drawer. Behind the 
Monument, the service had a flavour of damaged oranges, which, a 
little farther down the river, tempered into herrings, and gradually 
turned into a cosmopolitan blast of fish. In one church, the exact 
counterpart of the church in the * Rake's Progress,' where the hero 
is being married to the horrible old lady, there was no speciality of 
atmosphere, until the organ shook a perfume of hides all over us from 
some adjacent warehouse. 

" The dark vestries and registries into which I have peeped, and the 
little hemmed in churchyards that have echoed to my feet, have left 
impressions on my memory as distinct and quaint as any it has in that 
way received. In all those dusty registers that the worms are eating, 
there is not a line but made some hearts leap, or some tears flow, in 
their day. StiU and dry now, still and dry ! and the old tree at the 
window, with no room for its branches, has seen them all out. So with 
the tomb of the Master of the old Company, on which it drips. His 



CANNON STREET. 



323 



son restored it and died, his daughter restored it and died, and then he 
had been remembered long enough, and the tree took possession of 
him, and his name cracked out." — The Uncommercial Traveller. 

The great new street which leads out of St. Paul's Church- 
yard to the S.W. is Cannon Street, originally Candle wick 
Street, the head-quarters of the wax-chandlers who flourished 
by Roman Catholicism. In the formation of the new street, 
many old buildings were destroyed, the most interesting 
being Gerard's (Gisor's?) Hall in Basing Lane, with a noble 
crypt probably built by Sir John Gisors, Mayor in 1245 : in 
which a gigantic firpole was shown as the staff of " Gerard 
the Giant." The figure of the giant, which adorned the 
outside of the house, is now in the museum of the Guild- 
hall. Distaff Laney near the entrance of Cannon Street on 
the right, leads to Old Fish Street. Here are the Church of 
St. Nicholas Cole Abbey, the first church finished by Wren 
after the Fire, and the Church of St. Mary Magdalen, 
another of Wren's works, rather good in its proportions. In 
the vestibule is a brass rescued from the old church, with 
the date 1558, and the inscription — 

** In God the Lord put all your trust, 
Repent your former wicked daies. 
Elizabeth, our queen most just. 
Bless her, O Lord, in all her waies. 
So, Lord, increase good counseUours 
And preachers of His holy word ; 
Mishke of all papists desires — 
Oh Lord, cut them off with thy sword. 
How small soever the gift shall bee, 
Thank God for him who gave it thee : 
XII. penie loaves to XII. poor foulkes 
Give, every Sabbath day for aye." 

As a monument saved from a church burnt in the Great 
Fire this deserves notice. 



324 WALKS IN LONDON. 

Kntghtrider Street, which opens hence to the west, is 
supposed to derive its name from the processions of knights 
riding from Tower Royal to tournaments in Smithfield. 
No. 5 was the house of the great physician Linacre, 
bequeathed by him to the College of Physicians. 

Cannon Street is now crossed by Bread Street, so called 
from the market in which bakers of Bromley and Stratford- 
le-Bow were forced to sell their bread before the reign of 
Edward I., being forbidden to sell it in their houses. On 
the right is St. Mildred's, Bread Street, one of Wren's worst 
rebuildings, dedicated to a Saxon princess who was abbess 
of Minster. It is wretched externally, but has an elegantly 
supported dome. The pulpit is attributed to Grinling 
Gibbons. An interesting monument commemorates Sir 
Nicholas Crisp, the indefatigable agent of Charles I., 
who at one time would wait for information at the 
water's edge dressed as a porter, with a basket of fish on 
his head, and at another would disguise himself as a butter- 
woman and carry his news out of London mounted between 
two paimiers. His epitaph tells how " Sir Nicholas Crisp, 
anciently inhabitant in this parish and a great benefactor to 
it, was the old faithful servant to King Charles I. and King 
Charles II., for whom he suffered very much, and lost above 
;^ioo,ooo in their service, but this was repaid in some 
measure by King Charles II." 

In Bread Street, at the sign of the Spread Eagle, the 
armorial ensign of his family, John Milton was born, 
December 9, 1608, being the son of a scrivener. His 
birthplace was destroyed in the Great Fire of 1666, before 
the publication of ** Paradise Lost." The poet was baptised 
in the old Church of All Hallows at the corner of Bread 



THE LOST CHURCH OF ALL HALLOWS. 325 

SCreel and Watling Street. It was destroyed in the Fire, but 
rebuilt by Wren. The second church was condemned to 
destruction in 1877, the same year which witnessed the 
demolition of the house in Petty France which was the 
last remaining of Milton's many London homes. In the 
register of All Hallows his baptism is recorded, and he was 
commemorated on the church wall towards Watling Street 
in the inscription, which city waggoners often lingered to 
decipher — 

*' Three poets, in three distant ages bom, 
Greece, Italy, and England, did adorn. 
The first in loftiness of thought surpast, 
The next in majesty — in both the last. 
The force of nature could no further go : 
To make a third, she joined the former two.* 

John Milton was bom in Bread Street on 
Friday the 9th day of December, 1608, 
And was baptised in the parish church of 
Allhallows, Bread Street, on Tuesday the 
20th day of December, 1608." 

In the old church was buried Alderman Richard Reed, 
who refused to pay his contribution to the Northern Wars 
of Henry VIII. and was sent down to serve as a soldier. 
at his own cost, " that, as he could not find it in his heart 
tx) disburse a little quantity of his substance, he might do 
some service for his country with his body, whereby he 
might be somewhat instructed of the difference between the 
sitting quietly in his house and the travail and danger 
which others daily do sustain, whereby he hath hitherto 
been maintained in the same." He was taken prisoner by 
the Scotch and obliged to purchase his ransom for a large 

• Dryden. 



J26 WALKS IN LONDON, 

sum. In the vestry of the later church was a monumental 
tablet inscribed *' In memory of the Rev. W. Lawrence 
Saunders, M.A., Rector of All Hallows, who, for sermons 
here preached in defence of the doctrines of the Reforma- 
tion of the Church of England from the corruptions of the 
Church of Rome, suffered martyrdom in ye third of Queen 
Mary, being burned at Coventry, February ye 8th, 1555." 
John Howe, the eminent nonconformist divine, author of 
•' The Living Temple," " The Blessedness of the Righteous," 
&c., was buried here in 1705. Some of the fine oak carving 
from All Hallows is preserved at St. Mary-le-Bow. 

Watling Street — so called from the Saxon word Atheling, 
noble — is part of the old Roman road from London to Dover. 
As we look down it we see one of the most picturesque 
views in the City. The tower on the right belongs to 
Wren's restoration of the Church of St. Augustine, formerly 
called " Ecclesia Sancti Augustini ad Portam" from its posi- 
tion at the south-west gate of the precincts of St. Paul's, one 
of the six gates by which the old cathedral was approached. 
" Here," says Strype, *' the fraternity met on the eve of St. 
Austin, and in the morning at High Mass, when every 
brother offered a penny and was ready afterwards either to 
eat or to revel as the master and wardens directed." Beyond 
rises the great dome, " huge and dusky, with here and there 
a space on its vast form where the original whiteness of 
the marble comes out like a streak of moonshine amid the 
blackness with which time has made it grander than it was 
in its newness." * In Watling Street is the central station 
of the Metropolitan Fire Brigade. 
The Church of St. Mary Aider mary 01 ^t, Mary the Elder, 

• Hawthorne. 



TOWER ROYAL, 32^ 

in Bow Lane (right), which crosses Watling Street to the 
east, occupies the site of the first church dedicated to the 
Virgin in the City. The present building (restored 187677) 
is Gothic (Perpendicular) in spite of its being one of Wren's 
restorations (in 168 1), for he was forced by a bequest of 
;£'5,ooo in aid of the rebuilding to make the new churcK a 
copy of its predecessor, which had been built c. 15 10 by Sir 
Henry Keeble, a grocer. Lord Mayor in 15 10, called, in his 
epitaph in the old building — 

" A famous worthy wight 

Wliich did this Aldermary Church 
Erect and set upright." 

The monuments from St. Antholin's have been placed in the 
tower. Stow says that *' Richard Chawcer, Vintner, gave 
to this church his tenement and tavern, with the appurte- 
nances in the Royal Street, the corner of Kirion Lane, and 
was there buried, 1348 " : this was the father of Geoffrey 
Chaucer, the poet. 

St. Pancras Lane, on the left of Watling Street, leads to a 
quiet little churchyard, where, an inscription says, " Before 
ye dreadful fire anno 1666, stood ye church of St. Benet, 
Sherehog." 

Tower Royal (on the left of Cannon Street) now marks 
the site of an old Royal Palace, inhabited by King 
Stephen and restored by Queen Philippa, after which it 
was known as the " Queen's Wardrobe." It was here 
that the Fair Maid of Kent, widow of the Black Prince, was 
living during the Wat Tyler invasion, when the rebels 
terrified her by breaking in, and piercing her bed with their 
swords, but — 



32« WALKS IN LONDON. 

" King Richard, having in Smithfield overcome and dispersed the 
rebels, he, his lords, and all his company entered the City of London 
with great joy, and went to the lady princess his mother, who was then 
lodged in the Tower Royal, called the Queen's Wardrobe, where she 
had remained three days and two nights right sore abashed. But when 
she saw the king her son she was greatly rejoiced, and said, * Ah ! son, 
what great sorrow have I suffered for you this day ! ' The king 
answered and said, ' Certainly, madam, I know it well, but now 
rejoice, and thank God, for I have this day recovered mine heritage, and 
the realm of England, which I had near-hand lost." — Stow. 

Riley derives the name of Tower Royal from a street 
built in the thirteenth century by merchants of the Vintry, 
who imported wine from the town of La Reole near Bor- 
deaux. The " great house " of Tower Royal was granted 
ro the first Duke of Norfolk — "Jockey of Norfolk" — by 
Richard III. It afterwards became a " stable for the king's 
horses " and was gradually destroye<l. 

On the left, between the end of Watling Street and Badge 
Row, so called from sellers of Budge (lamb-skin) fur, was 
St. Antholin's or St. Anthony's, one of Wren's churches, 
destroyed by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners in 1876, and 
Its site built over. Great intercession was vainly made for 
the preservation of the tower, built 1685 — 88, which was 
a. noble work of the great City architect, and might have 
been the greatest ornament to the new street and utilised as 
a clock-tower. It only occupied forty-four square yards and 
in no way interfered with the traffic, but the impossibility of 
doing without the rent of this space in the most richly 
endowed square mile of the whole territory of the Church 
was considered a sufficient excuse for its destruction! The 
Commissioners from the Church of Scotland were lodged 
close by St. Antholin's, with a gallery opening from their 
house into the church, where their own chaplains preached, 



LONDON STONE, 329 

of whom Alexander Henderson was the chief. " To hear 
these sermons," says Clarendon, " there was so great a con- 
flux and resort by the citizens, out of humour and faction, 
by others of all qualities, part of curiosity, by some that they 
might the better justify the contempt they had of them, 
that from the first appearance of day in the morning of 
every Sunday to the shutting in of the light the church was 
never empty ; they (especially the women) who had the 
happiness to get into the church in the morning (they who 
could not hung upon or about the windows without, to be 
auditors or spectators) keeping the places till the after- 
noon exercises were finished."* " S. Antholine's," says 
Dugdale " (from its * Morning Lectures '), was the grand 
nursery whence most of the Seditious Preachers were 
after sent abroad throughout all England to poyson 
the people with their anti-monarchical principles."} The 
Puritanical piety of St. Antholin's is much ridiculed by 
contemporary poets. 

Facing Cannon Street, opposite the Railway Station, is 
the Church of St. Swithin, rebuilt by Wren, in the Roman 
Renaissance style, but remodelled as a mongrel Gothic 
church in 1869. In the old church Dryden had been 
married to Lady Elizabeth Howard, December i, 1663. 

Built into this church, facing the Station, is the famous 
London Stone, now encased in masonry and only visible 
through a circular opening wiih an iron grille. It is sup- 
posed by Camden to have been a Roman Milliarium — 
the central terminus whence all the great Roman roads 
radiated over England, and which answered to the Golden 

• Clarendon's " Hist, of the Rebellion," ed. 1826, i. 331. 
t Dugdale's " Troubles in England," fol. 1681, p. 37. 



330 



WALKS IN LONDON. 



Milestone in the Forum at Rome. It is probably now a 
mere fragment of its former self. Stow says, speaking of 
Walbrook — 

" On the south side of this high street, neere unto the channell, is 
pitched upright a great stone, called London Stone, fixed in the 
ground very deep, fastened with bars of iron, and otherwise so stronglie 
set, that if cartes do runne against it through negligence, the wheeles 




London Stone. 



be broken, and the stone itselfe unshaken. The cause why this stone 
was there set, the verie time when, or other memory hereof, is there 
none ; but that the same hath long continued there, is manifest, 
namely since, or rather before the time of the Conquest. For in the 
end of a fayre written Gospell booke, given to Christes Church in 
Canterburie, by Ethelstane, King of the West Saxons, I find noted of 
lands or rents in London, belonging to the said Church, whereof one 
parcel is described to lye near unto Lo7tdon Stone. Of later time we 
read that, in the year of Christ 1135, the ist of King Stephen, a fire 



ST. MARY AB CHURCH. 33] 

which began in the house of one Aflwarde, neare unto London Stone^ 
consumed all east to Ealdgate .... and those be the eldest notes 
that I read thereof." 

London Stone seems to have been looked upon as a kind 
of palladium in London, as the Coronation Stone was in 
Scotland. As such, the adventurous Kentish rebel, Jack 
Cade, seems to have regarded it, for when, in 1450, in the 
time of Henry VI., he entered London with royal honours, 
calling himself John Mortimer, it was straight to London 
Stone that he rode, and, striking upon it with his sword, 
cried, " Now is Mortimer lord of the City." Shakspeare 
makes him say — 

" Now is Mortimer lord of this city. And here, sitting upon London 
Stone, I charge and command that the conduit run nothing but claret 
wine this first year of oiu* reign. And now henceforward it shall be 
treason for any that calls me Lord Mortimer." — Hen. VI. pt. ii. Act 
iv. sc. 6. 

Dryden alludes to this in his fable of the " Cock and 
the Fox " — 

" The bees in arms 
Drive headlong from the waxen cells in swarms. 
Jack Straw at London Stone, with all his rout, 
Struck not the city with so loud a shout." 

The brick church of St. Mary Abchurch (from Up-church, 
being on rising ground), finished 1689, is externally one of 
Wren's ugliest rebuild! ngs, but internally of peculiar and 
beautiful design. Its cupola, painted by Sir James Thorn- 
hill is supported by eight arches and pendentives. The 
altar-piece is an exquisite work of Gibbons^ and the font- 
cover a fine piece of Renaissance work. Here are monu- 
ments to Sir Patience Ward, the Lord Mayor (1696) under 
whom the Monument was built (of whom the Merchant 



332 WALKS IN LONDON. 

Tailors' Company have a fine portrait) ; Edward Sherwood, 
1690 ; and Alderman Perchard. In Crooked Lane, at the 
end of Cannon Street on the right, was St. Michael's Church 
(now destroyed), where Sir William Walworth, who slew 
Wat Tyler, was buried, with the epitapn — 

" Here under lyeth a mon of fame, 
William Walworth called by name. 
Fishmonger he was in lyfF time here, 
And twise Lord Maior, as in bookes appere j 
Who with courage stout and manly myght 
Slew Jack Straw in Kyng Richard's syght. 
For which act done and trew content, 
The kyng made him knyght incontinent, 
And gave hym armes, as here you see. 
To declare his fact and chivalrie. 
He left this lyfF the yere of our God, 
Thirteen hundred fourscore and three odd." 

Cannon Street falls into King William Street opposite 
the statue of William IV. Behind the junction of King 
William Street and Grace Church Street is the Church of 
St, Clement, Eastcheap, one of Wren's restorations. In the 
old church Bishop Pearson {ob. 1686) was rector. His 
exposition of the Creed is dedicated '' to the right worship- 
ful and well-beloved, the parishioners of St. Clement's East- 
cheap.'* 

The name of this church is now the only relic of the 
street of Eastcheap, swallowed up in Cannon Street. It 
was once the especial mart of the Butchers, afterwards 
removed to Leadenhall. 

" Then I hyed me into Est-Chepe, 

One cryes rybbs of befe, and many a pye ; 
Pewter pottes they clattered on a heape. 
But for lacke of money I myght not spede." 

John Lydgate^s London Lyckpenny. 



ST. MARY WOOLNOTH. 333 

Here was the famous tavern of the Boar's Head, immor- 
tahsed by Shakspeare, burnt in the Fire, rebuilt, and 
finally destroyed in 183 1 : William IV.'s statue marks its 
site. Washington Irving describes his vain search for the 
tavern, but narrates that he saw at the " Mason's Arms," in 
Mile Lane, a snufF-box presented to the Vestry Meetings at 
the Boar's Head Tavern in 1767, with a representation of 
the tavern on the lid, and a goblet from the tavern, which 
he fondly believed was the " parcel-gilt " goblet on which 
Falstaff made his loving but faithless vow to Dame 
Quickly. 

Grace Church Street takes its name from the demolished 
church of St. Benet, called " Grass Church " from the 
adjoining herb-market. The name was formerly written 
" Gracious Street." In White Hart Court, opening from 
this street, was the Quakers' Meeting House, in which 
George Fox, the founder of the Quakers, preached two days 
before his death, and in the house of Henry Goldney in the 
same court he died, in 1690. 

Leaving "the Monument" for the present, we must now 
make an inner circle, and turn up the broad new Ki7ig 
William Street nearly as far as the Mansion House. 

Here (on the right), in the junction of King William 
Street and Lombard Street, is the grotesque Church of St. 
Mary Wooliioth * designed by Nicholas Hawksmoor, the 
*' domestic clerk" of Sir Christopher Wren, in 17 16. The 
niches and windows at the sides are tolerably bold imitations 
of fifteenth century Italian work. The interior is quadran- 
gular, with odd wooden decorations against the walls, and 
gaudily painted pillars. Over the entrance hang the helmet, 

• The origin of this name is unknown. 



334 WALKS IN LONDON. 

gloves, sword, spurs, and coat of Sir Martin Bowes, Lord 
Mayor in 1545, whose portrait is at the Goldsmiths' Hall. 
Against the north wall is a monument to John Newton, 
the friend of Cowper, author of the " Cardiphonia " and 
" Omicion " and of many of the " Olney Hymns." He 
^;ds for sixteen years Rector of Olney, and for twenty-eight 
years rector of this parish, where he died December 21, 
1807. The tablet is inscribed with an epitaph iiom his 
own pen — 

" John Newton, cleric, once an infidel and libertine, a servant of 
slaves in Africa, was by the rich mercy of our Lord and Saviour Jesus 
Christ, preserved, restored, pardoned, and appointed to preach the 
faith he h.id long laboured to destroy." 

' ' I remember, when a lad of about fifteen, being taken by my uncle 
to hear the well-known Mr. Newton (the friend of Cowper the poet) 
preach his wife's funeral sermon in the church of St. Mary Woolnoth, in 
Lombard Street. Newton was then well stricken in years, with a 
tremulous voice, and in the costume of the full-bottomed wig of the 
day. He had, and always had, the entire possession of the ear of his 
congregation. He spoke at first feebly and leisurely, but as he warmed, 
his ideas and his periods seemed mutually to enlarge : the tears trickled 
down his cheeks, and his action and expression were at times quite out 
of the ordinary course of things. It was as the * mens agitans molem et 
magno se corpore miscens.' In fact the preacher was one with his 
discourse. To this day I have not forgotten his text, Hab. iii. 17, 18 : 
' Although the fig-tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the 
vines ; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no 
meat ; the flock shaU be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no 
herd in the stalls ; yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God 
of my salvation.' Newton always preached extemporaneous." — Dibdin's 
Re^niniscences of a Literary Life, 

Let us now turn down Lombard Street — the street of 
Bankers, which derived its name from the Italian merchants 
who frequented it before the reign of Edward H. Jane 
Shore, the beloved of Edward IV., was the wife of a gold- 



LOMBARD STREET AND FENCHURCH STREET. 335 

smith in this street ; Guy, the founder of Guy's Hospital, 
was a bookseller here ; and here, where his father was a 
linen-draper, the poet Pope was born in 1688 amongst 
the merchants and money-makers. At No. 62> was Sir 
Thomas Gresham's banking office and goldsmith's shop, 
once surmounted l^y a huge gilt grasshopper. On the 
right, Nicholas Lane leads by the churchyard of St. Nicholas 
Aeon, never rebuilt after the Great Fire. On the left is 
the Church of St Edmund the English King and Martyr, 
which now also serves for the parishes of St. Benet, 
Grace Church, and St. Leonard, Eastcheap. It is one of 
Wren's restorations. In the old church on this site was 
buried John Shute (1563), who published one of the first 
English architectural works — " The First and Chief Groundes 
of Architecture." Opposite this church a court till lately 
led to a Quakers' Meeting House, where Penn and Fox 
frequently preached. Birchin Lane (left) was formerly 
Burchover Lane, from its builder. In Clements Lane 
(right) the quaint sign of " The Three Foxes " existed till 
the house it adorned (No. 6) was let to three lawyers, who 
felt it personal and had it plastered over. 

On the left of Lombard Street is another poor work of 
Wren, the Church of Allhallows^ Lombard Street. The 
church is of Saxon foundation and is mentioned in records 
of 1653. It is now called " the Invisible Church," so 
completely is it concealed by houses, and this is no loss. 
In the interi ir is some good wood-carving. 

From Lombard Street, Fe?ichurch Street leads to Aldgate, 
taking its name from the fenny ground caused by the over- 
flowings of the Lang Bourne, a clear brook of sweet water 
which ran down Fen Church Street and Lombard Street as 



336 WALKS IN LONDON. 

far as St. Mary Woolnoth, where it broke into several small 
rills which flowed southward to the Thames. Many of the 
buildings in this street bear a date immediately after the 
Great Fire, in which it was consumed. Pepys saw " Fan- 
church Street, Gracious Street, and Lombard Street all in 
dust." At the corner of Li7ne Street (so called from the 
lime-burners — the neighbouring Cohfnan Street and Seacoal 
Lane having the same origin) is the Church of St. Dmiis 
Backchurch (dedicated to the Athenian, who is called St. 
Denys in France), rebuilt by Wren after the Fire. Its 
second name indicates its position. St. Gabriel (of which 
no trace remains), standing close by, was called " Fore- 
church," from its position in the centre of Fenchurch Street. 
St. Dionis is now (1877} condemned. It contains the 
monument of Sir Arthur Ingram, 1681, from whom Ingram 
Court, which we have just passed on the left, derives its 
name ; and in the vestry are preserved four specimens of the 
earliest type of fire-engines — large syringes, three feet long, 
fastened by straps round the body of the man who works them. 
The Peinterers' Hall in Lime Street (No. 15) contains a 
curious portrait of William Smallwood, Master of the Com- 
pany in the time of Henry VII. 

On the right of Fenchurch Street, Philpot Lane records 
its ownership by Sir John Philpot, grocer and mayor 
under Richard II. Hard by, in Rood Lane, the next 
turn on the right, is the Church of St. Margaret Pattens, 
rebuilt by Wren, and so named " because, of old, pattens 
were there usually made and sold." * The church contains 
a good deal of handsome carving. Dr. Thomas Birch {pb, 
1766), author of the "General Dictionary," " Memoirs of 

* Stow. 



ALL HALLOWS STAINING, 337 

the Reign of Elizabeth," &c., was rector of this church and 
was buried in the chancel. 

Mincing Lane (right) is named from houses which 
belonged to the Minchuns or nuns of St. Helen's. Near the 
entrance of the lane, on the left, an iron gate is the entrance 
to the Hall of the Ciothworkers' Company, whose badge is 
a ram. About one hundred and ten poor men and the 
same number of women are clothed throughout by this 
Company, and receive a guinea each after attending a service 
at one of the neighbouring churches on the i6th of May. 
The Hall is very handsome, with stained windows and 
curious gilt statues of James I. and Charles I. saved from 
the Great Fire. The cash-books of the Company exist, 
" brought forward," from 1480. The garden of the Com- 
pany is formed by the Churchyard of All Hallows Staining, 
in which most of the tombs have been ruthlessly buried 
under the shrubs and gravel. Elizabeth is said to have 
attended a thanksgiving service here on the day of her 
deliverance from the Tower, before dining at the Queen's 
Head. The church is demolished, and the churchyard 
ruined by gravel and silly rockwork, but the fine old tower, 
which escaped the Fire, is retained. All Hallows Staining 
claims to be the earliest stone church in the City. 

To this churchyard has been removed a fragment of the 
beautiful Crypt of the Heri7iitage of St. James in the Wall, 
which was pulled down in 1874, when the chapel built 
above it by William Lambe the Clothworker (1495 — 1580) 
was removed from Cripplegate to Islington. It has low 
zig-zag Roman arches. 

Returning to Fenchurch Street, on the left is the Elephant 
Tavern, rebuilt in 1826, on the site of a tavern whicn was 

VOL. I. z 



338 



WALKS IN LONDON. 



of great interest, because, being a massive house built of 
solid stone, it alone resisted the Great Fire, and the flames, 
which tore swiftly through the timber buildings of this part 
of London, left it standing smoke-begrimed and flame- 
blackened, but sufficiently uninjured to give a shelter to 
numbers of the homeless inhabitants of the 13,200 houses 




All Hallows Staining. 



which were swept away. William Hogart, who afterwards 
changed his name to Hogarth, came to lodge in this house, 
in 1697, soon after the death of his father, who kept a small 
school in the Old Bailey, and here for a long time he 
earned a hand-to-mouth subsistence by selHng his engrav- 
ings on copper. " I remember the time," he says, " when I 
have gone moping into the City with scarce a shilling, but 



THE IRONMONGERS' HALL, 339 

as soon as I have obtained two guineas for a plate, I have 
returned home, put on my sword, and sallied forth again 
with all the confidence of a man with thousands in his 
pockets." Sometimes, however, the plates accumulated un- 
sold till the artist was glad to sell them at half-a-crown the 
pound to Mr. Bowles of the Black Horse at Comhill. It 
was in 1727, while he was living here, that Hogarth made a 
tapestry design for Morris the upholsterer, for which he was 
refused payment, and vainly sued for it in the Courts. It is 
believed that this loss induced him to run so far into debt 
with his landlord that he consented to wipe off the score 
with his brush by caricaturing on the wall of the Elephant 
taproom the parochial authorities who had insulted his land- 
lord by removing the scene of their annual orgie to a tavern 
(Henry the Eighth's Head) opposite, and insulted himself 
by omitting to send his accustomed invitation. The famous 
picture of " Modern Midnight Conversation " was the result, 
in which every phase of riotry and intoxication was repre- 
sented,* and which delighted the landlord by attracting 
half London to his house. The host of the Elephant was 
only too glad to obliterate a second score for the picture of 
the " Hudson's Bay Company Porters going to dinner," in 
which Fenchurch Street, as it then was, was represented ; 
and to these greater pictures the paintings of Harlequin and 
Pierrot, and of Harlow Bush Fair, were afterwards added, 
so that the Elephant became a little gallery of the best 
works of Hogarth.t 

The next house is the Hall of the Ironmongers* Company ^ 
incorporated by a charter of Edward IV. At the foot of 

• Orator Henley, the famous but eccentric and profligate preacher, who was 
the " orator of brazen face and lungs " of Pope's Dunctad, was introduced here. 

♦ See The Builder, Sept. ii, 1875. 



340 WALKS IN LONDON, 

their staircase is an ancient wooden statue of St. Lawrence, 
their patron saint, and an ostrich, the bird which digests 
iron. Their picturesque Hall is hung with pictures and 
banners, and decorated with the arms of the Masters, from 
those of the first Master, Capel de Cure, in 135 1. The 
portraits include — 

Izaak Walton the angler. 

Sir R. Jeffreys, founder of almshouses in Whitechapel. 

Thomas Belton, who, dying in 1723, left 20,000 guineas to be applied 
to the redemption of Christian slaves taken by pirates. The bequest 
of late years has enormously increased in value, a portion of the build- 
ing land purchased for ^9,000 having been sold for ^^87,000. In 1847 
the Company got a scheme passed by which the freemen and widows 
of the Company participated in the bequest, as well as 800 National 
Schools in England and Wales. 

Admiral Lord Hood, a noble portrait by Gainsborough^ presented 
on his admission to the Company. 

Lord Exmouth, by Sir W. Beechey, 

No. 53 on the opposite side of Fenchurch Street was the 
Queen's Head Tavern, pulled down in 1876. In it were 
preserved the metal dish and cover used by the Princess 
Elizabeth when she dined here on pork and peas upon her 
release from the Tower in 1554. The modern building 
erected on the site of the old tavern bears a commemora- 
tive statue of Elizabeth. On the left, in Church Row, is 
the truly hideous Church of St. Catherine Coleman, occupy- 
ing the site of an ancient garden called Coleman Haw. 

Mark Lane (right) is one of the busiest streets in London. 
It was originally " Mart Lane from the privilege of fair 
accorded by Edward I. to Sir Thomas Ross of Hamlake, 
whose manor of Blanch Appleton became corrupted into 
Blind Chapel Court."* In the reign of Edward IV. 

• Edinburgh Review, No. 267 



ST. OLAVE, HART STREET, 341 

basket-makers, vine-dressers, and other foreigners were 
permitted to have shops in the manor of Blanch Appleton 
and nowhere else in the City. 

Descending Mark Lane, we find, on the left. Hart Street, 
where (four doors from Mark Lane) stood the richly orna- 
mented timber house called '' Whittington's Palace," where, 
with the same generosity shown by the Fuggers at Augs- 
burg, the princely Lord Mayor burnt the royal bond for a 
debt of ;^6o,ooo, when Henry V. and his queen came to 
dine with him. " Never had king such a subject," Henry 
is said to have exclaimed, when Whittington replied, 
" Surely, sire, never had subject such a king." 

The interesting Church of St. Olave, Hart Street, is 
dedicated to a Norwegian who came to England and fought 
on behalf of Ethelred II. against the Danes. Being after- 
wards himself made king of Norway, he became a Christian, 
which irritated his subjects, who invited Canute to supplant 
him, by whom he was defeated and slain in 1028. Several 
churches were dedicated to him in England and three in 
London, on account of the assistance he had given to the 
Saxons against the Danes. This church* escaped the Great 
Fire, and is full of interest. It is the " our owne church " 
so frequently mentioned in his Diary by Samuel Pepys, whose 
parish church it was, and who is buried here (1703) with 
his wife and his brother Tom (1664) "just under my mother's 
pew." The interior is highly picturesque, and its monu- 
ments and relics of old iron-work have been respected in 
its " restoration," though the usual follies of shiny tiles are 
introduced. Making the round of the building from the 
left, we see — 

• The keys are to be found near— at 10, Gould Square, Crutched Friars, 



342 WALKS IN LONDON, 

The Tomb of Sir Andrew Riccardy Turkey merchant and Chairman 
of the East India Company, 1 672. 

Monument to Sir John Raddiffe, son of Robert, Earl of Sussex, 
1568. 

Half-figure oi Peter Turner, 1614, son of the herbalist. 

Inscription to William Turner^ author of the first English Herbal, 
1568. 

"The fore-mentioned William Turner, father of Peter, was an 
antient gospeUer, contemporary, feUow-collegian, and friend to Bishop 
Ridley, the martyr. He was doctor of physic in King Edward the 
Sixth's days, and domestic physician to the Duke of Somerset, Pro- 
tector to that king; he was also a divine and preacher, and wrote 
several books against the errors of Rome ; and was preferred by King 
Edward to be Dean of Wells ; and, being an exile under Queen Mary 
the First, returned home upon her death, and enjoyed his deanery again. 
He was the first that, by great labour and travel into Germany, Italy, 
and other foreign parts, put forth an Herbal in English, anno 1568, 
the groundwork of Gerard's Herbal, and then lived in Crutched Friars, 
from which he dated his epistle dedicatory of that book to the queen." 
— Stow. 

" Dr. Turner's Book of Herbs will always grow green, and never 
wither as long as Dioscorides is held in mind by us mortal wights." — 
Dr. Bulleyn. 

Kneeling Effigy of the Florentine merchant, Pietro Capponi, 1582. 

Two curious Monuments (delightful in colour) oi Andrew Bayninge, 
1 6 ID, and Paul Bayninge, 16 16, aldermen, with an epitaph which teUs 

how — 

«* The happy summe and end of then affaires. 
Provided well both for their soules and heires." 

Above the tombs of these brothers the Bust of the fooUsh beauty, with 
whose little affectations and jealousies we are so singularly well 
acquainted— the Wife of Samuel Pepys. 

(Right of altar) The admirable Figure, beautiful in profile, of Dame 
Anne Radcliffe, 1 585. 

The Monument oi Sir John Mennys, 167 1, the witty Comptroller of 
the Navy under Charles II., who wrote some of the best poems in the 
" Musarum Delicise." This is the Sir John Minnes mentioned in 
Pepys's Diary of June 6, 1666, when he says, " To our church, it being 
the common Fast-day, and it was just before sermon ; but, Lord ! how 
all the people in the church did stare upon me, to see me whisper the 
news of the victory over the Dutch to Sir John Minnes and my Lady 
Pen ! Anon I saw people stirring and whispering below ; and by and 



ST. OLAVE, HART STREET. 



343 



by comes up the sexton from my Lady Ford, to tell me the news which 
I had brought, being now sent into the church by Sir W. Batten, in 
writing, and passed from pew to pew." 




The Gate of the Dead, Seething Lane. 



(South Aisle) The curious Brass, much mutilated, of Sir Richard 
Haddon, Lord Mayor, and his family. 

The Brass of Johfi Orgone and his wife Ellyne, 1584, with the in- 
scription — 

" As I was, so be ye ; 
As I am, you shall be , 
That I gave, that I have ; 
That I spent, that I had ; 
Thus I ende all my coste, 
That I lefte, that I loste." 



Admirable Jacobian Monument of Sir J. 
wives and children. 



Deane, 1608, with his 



344 WALKS IN LONDON. 

Devereux, Earl of Essex, the Parliamentary general, was 
baptised in this church, 1 591, by Lancelot Andrews, after- 
wards Bishop of Winchester. Its churchyard was one of 
those used for burial during the Plague, a fact commemorated 
in the skulls over its picturesque and grimy gateway, which 
is surmounted by a curious chevaux de /rise of ancient iron- 
work. Pepys, writing on January 30, 1665-6, says — 

" Home, finding the town keeping the day solemnly, it being the day 
of the king's murther ; and they being at church, I presently went into 
the church. This is the first time I have been in the church since I 
left London for the Plague ; and it frightened me indeed to go through 
the church, more than I thought it could have done, to see so many 
graves lie so high upon the churchyard where people have been buried 
of the Plague. I was much troubled at it, and do not think to go 
through it again a good while." 

The gateway looks out upon Seething Lane, where Pepys 
lived during the last nine years of his life, being here during 
the Great Fire, which this street escaped. Sir Francis Wal- 
singham and his son-in-law the Earl of Essex lived here in 
a house built by Sir John Allen, Lord Mayor in the time of 
Henry VIIL 

The Convent of Crossed or Crouched Friars (Fratres 
Sanctae Crucis) in Hart Street, founded by Ralph Hosier 
and William Saberner in 1298, has given a name to the 
neighbouring street of Crutched Friars. Here, in Cooper's 
Row, were Sir John Milborne's Almshouses (lately removed 
to Seven Sisters Road, Holloway), built in 1535, in honour 
of God and of the Virgin, where, having strangely survived 
Puritan iconoclasm, a relief of the Assumption of the Virgin 
remained to the last over the entrance gate. Near this was an 
early Northumberland House, inhabited by the second Earl 
of Northumberland, who was slain at the Battle of St. 



ALDGATE. 345 

Alban*s, and his son the third Earl, who fell, sword in hand, 
at the Battle of Towton. In Crutched Friars are the vast 
buildings of the East India Docks Indigo Warehouse. 

Returning to Fenchurch Street, we pass, on the left, 
Billiter Lane^ formerly " Bell-yeter Lane," from the bell- 
founders, though Stow says it was formerly " Belzettars 
Lane, so called of the first owner and builder thereof." 
Fenchurch Street leads into Aldgate High Street, where 
Aldgate Pump occupies the site of a famous well dedicated 
to St. Michael the Archangel. Close by stood a Httle 
Chapel of St. Michael, which belonged to the neighbouring 
monastery of the Holy Trinity, where wayfarers to the 
eastern counties sought the divine protection for their 
journey. The chapel is destroyed, but its beautiful Crypt 
still exists beneath the pavement of Aldgate, though the 
approaches to it have been recently blocked up. 

Aldgate was one of the great gates of the City, and the 
chief outlet to the eastern counties from the time of the 
Romans to its destruction in 1760. Its antiquity is 
shown in the name of Aeld or Old gate. It was rebuilt in 
the reign of John by the Barons, with money robbed from 
the coffers of the monks and stone taken from the houses of 
the Jews, for they feared that others might not experience 
more difficulty than they had done themselves, in entering 
the City on this side. The dwelling-house above the gate 
was leased by the corporation in 1374 (48 Edward III.) to 
the poet Chaucer » for life, though he was not allowed to 
underlet any portion of the building to others. In 147 1 
Aldgate was attacked by Thomas Nevill, the " Bastard of 
Falconbergh," who succeeded in effecting an entrance, but, 
the portcullis being let down, was surrounded and slain with 



346 WALKS IN LONDON. 

his men. Tn 1553 Aldgate was hung from the top to the 
bottom with streamers to welcome Mary I., as she entered 
London in triumph, after the fall of the partisans of Lady 
] ane Grey. The gate built by the Barons was pulled down 
in 1606 and rebuilt in 1609. This last Aldgate bore on 
its east side a gilded statue of James L with a lion and 
unicorn chained at his feet, and on the west side gilded 




In Aldgate. 

otatues of Peace, Fortune, and Charity. It was used after 
the Fire for the prisoners who had been lodged in the 
Poultry Compter. 

The name of Nightingale Lane just outside the site of 
Aldgate is an odd corruption of " Knighten Guild Lane," 
commemorating the district which Stow describes as " a 
certain portion of land on the east part of the City, left 
desolate and forsaken by the inhabitants, by reason of too 



ALDGATB^ 347 

much servitude," which was given by King Edgai to 
"thirteen knights or soldiers well-beloved, for service by 
them done," and was formed by them into the liberty called 
Knighten Guild, which still exists as Porisoken (soke of the 
gate) Ward. 

Stow, the antiquary, lived in Aldgate, and here witnessed 
the death of the Bailiff of Romford, " a man very well 
beloved," who was executed on an accusation of having 
taken part in a rising in the Eastern Counties. This accu- 
sation was brought by Sir Stephen, Curate of St. Andrew 
Undershaft, the popular agitator whose silly sermon at 
Paul's Cross led to the destruction of the parish Maypole. 
The bailiff died, protesting his entire innocence. " I heard 
the words of the prisoner," says Stow, " for he was executed 
upon the pavement of my door, where I kept house ;" and 
the popular indignation was so great that the curate was 
forced to take flight from the City. 

Duke Street^ on the left, commemorates Thomas Howard, 
Duke of Norfolk, who married the heiress of the property 
on this site. On the right is Jewry Street (leading into 
Crutched Friars), called even in Stow's time " the poor 
Jurie, of Jews dwelling there." But the great settlement of 
Jews here was in 1655, under Cromwell, when they came 
to England in such numbers that there was no room for 
them in Old Jewry and Jewin Street. 

The ugly Church of St. Botolph, Aldgate^ was built by 
George Dance in 1744 on the site of an earlier church, 
for there were churches to this popular saint at four of the 
gates — Billingsgate, Aldersgate, Bishopsgate, and Aldgate. 
Retained from the older church are the curious painted 
bust of Robert Dow, merchant tailor, 161 2, and a figure in 



348 WALKS IN LONDON. 

a shroud on the tomb of Sir Nicholas and Lady Elizabeth 
Carew, with their son-in-law Lord Darcv of the north and 
their grandson Sir Arthur Darcy. Almost opposite St. 
Botolph's is an old house decorated with Prince of Wales's 
feathers, the Fleur-de-lis of France, the Thistle of Scotland, 
and Portcullis of Westminster. 

The Three Nuns Inn (left) near St. Botolph's is men- 
tioned in Defoe's History of the Plague. It takes its name 
of the nuns of the Minorite convent which gave its name 
to the opposite street of the Minories. 

The name of Petticoat Lane (on the left) has been ludi- 
crously changed into Middlesex Street; it is the " Hog 
Lane " of Stow. In Gravel Lane, close by, stood, till 1844, 
" the Spanish Ambassador's House," where Gondomar is 
said to have once lived. In another house near this, 
which belonged to Hans Jacobsen, jeweller to James I., 
John Strype was born, and his name, horribly perverted, 
remains in " Tripe Yard " ! * 

*' Petticoat Lane is essentially the old clothes district. Embracing 
the streets and alleys adjacent to Petticoat Lane, and including the 
rows of old boots and shoes on the ground, there is, perhaps, between 
two and three miles of old clothes. Petticoat Lane proper is long and 
narrow, and to look down it is to look down a vista of many-coloured 
garments, alike on the sides and on the ground. The effect sometimes 
is very striking, from the variety of hues and the constant flitting or 
gathering of the crowd into little groups of bargainers. Gowns of 
every shade and every pattern are hanging up, but none, perhaps, look 
either bright or white ; it is a vista of dinginess, but many-coloured 
dinginess, as regards female attire. Dress-coats, frock-coats, great- 
coats, livery and game-keepers' coats, paletots, tunics, trowsers, knee- 
breeches, waistcoats, capes, pilot-coats, working jackets, plaids, hats, 
dressing-gowns, shirts, Guernsey frocks, are all displayed. The pre- 
dominant colours are black and blue, but there is every colour ; the 
light dress of some aristocratic livery, the dull brown-green of velveteen, 

• The Builder, May ii, 1877. 



WHITECHAPEL, 



34Q 



the deep blue of a pilot jacket, the variegated figures of the shawl 
dressing-gown, the glossy black of the restored garments, the shine of 
the newly-turpentined black satin waistcoats, the scarlet and green of 
some flaming tartan— these things, mixed with the hues of the 
women's garments, spotted and striped, certainly present a scene 
which cannot be beheld in any other part of the greatest city in the 
world, nor in any other portion of the world itself, 

" The ground has also its array of colours. It is covered with lines 
of boots and shoes, their shining black relieved here and there by the 
admixture of females' boots, with drab, green, plum, or lavender- 
coloured ' legs,' as the upper part of the boot is always called in the 
trade. There is, too, an admixture of men's 'button-boots,' with 
drab-cloth legs ; and of a few red, yellow, and russet-coloured slippers ; 
and of children's coloured morocco boots and shoes. Handkerchiefs, 
sometimes of a gaudy orange pattern, are heaped on a chair. Lace 
and mushn occupy small stands, or are spread on the ground. Black 
and drab and straw hats are hung up, or piled one upon another, and 
kept from falling by means of strings ; while incessantly threading 
their way through all this intricacy is a mass of people, some of whose 
dresses speak of a recent purchase in this lane." — H. Mayhew' s London 
Labour and the London Foor. 

Aldgate now falls into the poverty-stricken district of 
Whiiechapel. The name of Weniworih Street (left) com- 
memorates Thomas Wentworth, Lord Chamberlain to 
Edward VI. On the right of the main street is the Church 
of St. Mary, which once occupied an important position, 
as before the time of railways most of the great roads into 
the eastern counties and all the coast lines on this side of 
London were measured from " Whitechapel Church," which 
" shared with Shoreditch Church, Hick's Hall, Tyburn 
Turnpike, and Hyde Park Corner the position now occu- 
pied by the great railway-termini north of the Thames." * 

The church was rebuilt 1876-77, with a spire two hundred 
and ten feet high in the place of a hideous building of 
Charles IL's time. It is one of the few churches in which, 

• Saturday Review, Feb. n, x&7y 



350 WALKS IN LONDON. 

as the churchyard had frequently been used for open-air 
preaching, an outside pulpit has been added. The original 
name of the church, " St. Mary Matfelon," is derived from 
the Syriac word Matfel, meaning a woman who has recently 
given birth to a son. There is, in St. Alban's Abbey, a 
picture of the Last Supper which was painted by Sir J. 
Thornhill for this church, but which the Bishop of London 
caused to be removed as a scandal; because Kennett, 
Dean of St. Paul's, was therein represented as Judas 
Iscariot. 

On the 2ist of July, 1649, a man named Charles Brandon 
was buried in this churchyard — **a man out of Rosemary 
Lane, where he kept a rag-shop." His entry in the Burial 
Register is — " This man was the executioner oi Charles I." 
and a rare tract entitled, "The Confession of Richard 
Brandon, the Hangman, upon his death-bed, concerning 
the beheading of his late Majesty," describes how, as his 
corpse was being carried to the churchyard, the people 
cried out, " Hang the rogue ! Bury him in the dung-hill ! " 
while others pressed upon him, saying they would quarter him 
for executing the king, so that his body had to be rescued 
by force.* Brandon was succeeded in his horrible office by 
Dunn, who was followed by Jack Ketch, whose name 
has been transmitted to his successors for one hundred and 
fifty years. 

[From Whitechapel the long broad thoroughfare of the 
Commercial Road leads (right) to Stepney— iht Stibbenhidde 
or Stebenheth of early deeds : the affix indicating the hid 
or h^redium of a Saxon freeman. We must turn here to 
the left down White Horse Street, past the Radcliffe Schools, 

• See The Trial of Charles 1., The Family Library, No. xxxi. 



STEPNEY, 351 

founded in 17 10, and adorned with quaint figures of the 
charity children of that date, to where St. Dunstan^s Church 
stands in its great churchyard, a beautiful green oasis amid 
the ugly brick houses. Colet was vicar of this church before 
he was Dean of St. Paul's. He was followed by Richard 
Pace, also Dean of St. Paul's, described by Erasmus, who 
was his intimate friend and addressed many of his letters to 
him, as " utriusque literaturae calentissimus," and by Stow as 
" endowed with many excellent gifts of nature : courteous, 
pleasant, and delighting in music; highly in the king's 
favour and well heard in matters of weight." In 1527 he 
was sent as ambassador to Venice. Afterwards he lost the 
royal favour through the influence of Wolsey, and was 
imprisoned for two years in the Tower. On his release, he 
lived in retirement at Stepney and was buried near the altar 
of the church. William Jerome, who was presented to the 
vicarage of Stepney soon after the death of Pace, was 
executed for heresy in 1540. 

St. Dunstan's is a handsome perpendicular building, and 
contains a number of monuments, chiefly Jacobean. In the 
porch is a stone inscribed — 

** Of Carthage wall I was a stone, 
• Oh, mortals, read with pity, 

Time consumes all, it spareth none, 
Man, mountain, town, or city. 
Therefore oh mortals now bethink 

Go where unto you must, 
Since now such stately buildings 
Lie buried in the dust." 

Thomas Hughes. 1663. 

On the right, on entering the church, is the monument of 
Dame Rebecca Berry, 1696, wife of Sir John Berry, and 



352 WALKS IN LONDON, 

afterwards of Thomas Elton of Stratford-le-Bow, which is 

regarded with much popular favour, though there are those 

who declare that Dame Rebecca has only been connected 

with the ballad of "The Fish and the Ring" or "The 

Cruel Knight and the Fortunate Farmer's Daughter," by the 

coat-of-arms upon the tomb — which is heraldically speaking 

— paly of six on a bend three mullets (Elton) impaling a 

fish ; and in the dexter chief point an annulet between two 

bends wavy. The legend tells that a knight learned in the 

stars was present at her birth, and, reading her horoscope, 

knew that she was fated to become his wife. He tried 

various means for her destruction, and finally attempted to 

drown her by throwing her from a rock into the sea, but 

relented at the last moment, and threw a ring into the waves 

instead, bidding her never see his face again unless able to 

produce it. She became a cook, and having found the ring 

in a codfish she was dressing, presented it to the knight 

and was married. The knight can have had nothing to 

regret if we believe the epitaph — 

" Come, ladies, you that would appear 
Like angels fair, and dress you here. 
Come dress you at this marble stone, 
And make that humble grace your own 
Which once adom'd as fair a mind * 

As e'er yet lodged in womankind. 
So she was dress'd, whose humble life 
Was free from pride, was free from strife, 
Free from all envious brawls and jarrs 
Of human life the civil warrs, 
These ne'er disturbed her peaceful mind, 
Which still was gentle, still was kind, 
Her very looks, her garb, her mien, 
Disclos'd the humble soul within. 
Trace her through every scene of life, 
View her as widow, virgin, wife, 



STEPNEY, 353 

Still the same humble she appears, 

The same in youth, the same in years. 

The same in high and low estate, 

Ne'er vex't with this, ne'er moved with that. 

Go ladies now, and if you'd be. 

As fair, as great, as good as she, 

Go learn of her humility." 

On the left of the altar is the handsome canopied tomb of 
Sir Henry Colet, Knight, 1510, twice Mayor of London, 
the father of Dean Colet. Sir Thomas Spert, founder of 
the Trinity House and Comptroller of the Navy under 
Henry VHI., is also buried here. In the churchyard is the 
altar- tomb of Admiral Sir John Leake, 1720, "the brave 
and fortunate," who raised the siege of Londonderry. 
The great variety of curious epitaphs in this churchyard, 
" in which you may spend an afternoon with great pleasure 
to yourself," is described in No. 518 of the Spectator, 
Stupidly covered by gravel, in the path leading to White 
Horse Street, is the tomb of Roger Crab, 1680, described 
in the pamphlet called "The English Hermit, or the 
Wonder of the Age.'* He served for seven years in the 
Parliamentary army, and suffered much in the cause, but 
nevertheless was unjustly imprisoned by Cromwell. Soon 
after his release he literally followed the precept of the 
Gospel by distributing all his goods to the poor, except a 
cottage at Ickenham, where he lived entirely on herbs — 
" dock-leaves, mallows, or grass." 

Stepney was the scene of a parliament under Edward I., 

and the Bishops of London had a country palace and park 

here till the reign of Elizabeth. There is a tradition that 

all children born at sea are parishioners of Stepney — 

" He who sails on the wide sea 
Is a parishioner of Stepney."] 

VOL. I. A A 



354 WALKS IN LONDON. 

We may return from Aldgate to the Exchange through 
Leadenhall Street On the left is Lea(fenhall Market, so 
called from the manor of Sir Hugh Nevile, by whom it was 
founded. 

«« Would'st thou with mighty beef augment thy meal, 
Seek Leadenhall."— 6^aj. Trivia, 

On the north (right) of the street is the Church of St. 
Catherine Cree, rebuilt 1629, interesting because its interior 
was the first work executed by Inigo Jones, after his return 
from Italy, and as having been consecrated (in the place 
of an older church) by Laud, as Bishop of London (January 
16, 163 1), with ceremonies which were afterwards made a 
principal accusation of Popery against him, and were 
greatly conducive to his death. Hans Holbein, who died 
of the plague at the Duke of Norfolk's house in Aldgate, 
1554, was buried in the old church. The south-eastern 
porch of the existing building was the gate of the watch- 
house. It bears an inscription stating that " this gate was 
built at the cost and charges of William Avernon, Citizen 
and Goldsmith of London, who died December, anno dni. 
163 1." Above — a strange memento mori to the ever-moving 
flow of life through the street beneath — is the ghastly figure 
of the donor, a skeleton in a shroud, lying on a mattress. 

The church contains the tomb of Sir Nicholas Throg- 
morton, 1570, Chief Butler of England (the father-in-law of 
Sir Walter Raleigh), from whom Throgmorton Street takes 
its name. His efhgy in armour is interesting as that of one 
who played a conspicuous part in the reigns of the Tudors. 
Having been server to Henry VJTI., he followed the fortunes 
of the queen-dowager, Katherine Parr, resided with her as 



ST. CATHERINE CREE. 355 

cup-bearer throughout her brief married life with Seymour^ 
and was with her at her death. He afterwards served in 
Scotland under the Protector Somerset, who sent him to 
bear the news of the victory of Pinkie to London. Edward 
VI. appointed him privy-councillor, and he was present at 
the young king's death at Greenwich. In February, 1554, 
he was arrested on a charge of being concerned in Sir 
Thomas Wyatt's conspiracy, and was tried in the Guildhall, 
but was acquitted, after a fierce cross-examination, owing to 
his own presence of mind and his spirited defence, though 
the jury were fined for releasing him. For the third time 
present at a royal death-bed, he fulfilled the request of 
Elizabeth by taking the wedding-ring given by Philip from 
the dead finger of Mary, and delivering it to the new 
queen. In the words of his epitaph he became " one of 
the Chamberlains of the Exchequer, and Ambassador Heger 
to the Queen's Majesty, Queen Elizabeth, in France." He 
was also the ambassador sent to remonstrate with Mary, 
Queen of Scots, on her intended alliance with Darnley. 
But in the close of his life he intrigued for the marriage of 
Mary with the Duke of Norfolk, and was sent a second 
time to the Tower. Though released, he never regained the 
favour of Elizabeth, and died of a broken heart, not without 
suspicion of poison, at the house of the Earl of Leicester, 
February 12, 1571. 

" He was a man of large experience, piercing judgment, and singular 
prudence ; but he died very luckily for himself and his family, his life 
and estate being in great danger by reason of his turbulent spirit." — 
Camden. 

The epitaph of R. Spencer, a Turkey Merchant, records 
his death in 1667 after he had seen " the prodigious changes 



356 WALKS IN LONDON, 

in the state, the dreadful triumphs of death by pestilence, 
and the astonishing conflagration of the city by fire." 

" The Lion Sermon," which is still occasionally preached 
in this church, commemorates an adventure of Sir John 
Gayor, Knight and Merchant of London, who, while travel- 
ling in Arabia, became separated from his caravan, and, 
while wandering alone in the night, was attacked by a lion. 
Falling on his knees, he vowed his fortune for his deliver- 
ance. The lion turned aside, and, with other charitable 
bequests, Sir John left ;£2oo to the parish of St. Catherine 
Cree, on condition of his escape being sometimes described 
in a sermon. 

Cree Lane, which runs along the western wall of the 
church, once led to the magnificent Priory of Holy Trinity, 
also called Christ Church, which was founded by " good 
Queen Maude," wife of Henry L, on the persuasion of 
Archbishop Anselm. The first Mayor of London, the draper 
Henry Fitz-Alwyn, who continued twenty years in office, 
was buried in its church in 1212. The fact that this was 
one of the richest monasteries in the kingdom was probably 
the cause of its being one of the first to be attacked. 
Henry VIH. gave it to Thomas Dudley, afterwards Lord 
Chancellor. His daughter married Thomas Howard, Duke 
of Norfolk, who, after Audley's death, lived here in great 
state at " Duke's Place." His son, the Earl of Suffolk, sold 
the property to the City of London for a large sum, which 
he expended in the building of Audley End. 

We now reach, on the right (at the entrance of the 
ancient street called St. Mary Axe, where the famous 
surgeon Sir Astley Cooper commenced practice), the Church 
of St. Andrew Undershaft, so called, says Stow, ** because 



ST. ANDREW UNDERSHAFT. 



357 



that of old time every year (on May-day in the morning), 
it was used that a high or long shaft or May-pole was set 
up there before the south door." The shaft of the May- 
pole was higher than the steeple. It was pulled down 
on "Evil May Day" in the reign of Henry VIII., but 
continued hanging on hooks in Shaft Alley till the third 
year of Edward VI., when it was sawn in pieces and 




St. Andrew Undershaft. 



burnt by the people after a sermon at Paul's Cross, in 
which the preacher told them that it had been made 
an idol of, inasmuch as they had named their parish 
church "under the shaft." The church, which has a 
picturesque many-turreted tower, is a good specimen 
of Perpendicular (1520 — 1532). In the east window 
are portraits of Edward VI., Elizabeth, James I., 



358 



WALKS IN LONDON. 



Charles L, and Charles II. On the north wall is a monu- 
ment to Sir Hugh Hammersley, 1637, with effigies of him 
and his wife kneeling under a tent, and two standing 
figures at the sides, attributed to one Thomas Madder. 
Close by, a curious little specimen of a painted monument, 
is that of Alice Bynge, who had " three husbands, all 




Stew's Tomb. 



Bachelors and stationers." At the end of the north aisle is 
the striking terra-cotta tomb (never painted) of John Stow 
thefamous antiquary (15 25 — 1605), author of the "Survey of 
London," to which all later writers on the city are so much 
indebted. The venerable old man is represented sitting at 
his table with a book, and a pen in his hand. He was a 



STOWS TOMB. 359 

tailor by trade and resided near the well in Aldgate. He 
describes how the compilation of his works, printed and 
manuscript, " cost many a weary mile's travel, many a hard- 
earned penny and pound, and many a cold winter night's 
study." In his old age he fell into great poverty, but all 
he could obtain in his eightieth year from James I. for his 
great literary services was " a license to beg." His collec- 
tions for the " Chronicles of England," now in the British 
Museum, occupy sixty quarto volumes. But the same mis- 
fortunes which attended him in life were suffered to follow 
after death, and his remains were disturbed, if not removed, 
in 1732. 

" The fact that Stowe was originally a tailor may account for the 
interest which he always took in matters of dress, in which he was * the 
grave chronicler of matters not grave.' " — Disraeli. 

"I confess, I have heard Stow often accused, that (as learned 
Guicciardini is charged for telling magnarum rerum minutias) he 
reporteth res in se minutas, toys and trifles, being such a Smell-feast^ 
that he caanot pass by Guildhall, but his pen must taste of the good 
chear therein. However this must be indulged to his education ; so 
hard is it for a citizen to write an history, but that the fur of his gown 
will be felt therein. Sure I am, our most elegant historians who have 
wrote since his time (Sir Francis Bacon, Master Camden, &c.), though 
throwing away the basket, have taken the fruit ; though not mentioning 
his name, making use of his endeavours. Let me adde of John Stow, 
that (however he kept tune) he kept time very weU, no author being 
more accurate in the notation thereof." — Fuller's Worthies. 

Opposite St. Andrew Undershaft is an Elizabethan house 
from whose boldly projecting stories the inmates must have 
watched the erection of the Maypole and the dances around 
it The New Zealand Chambers, hard by, are an ambitious 
modern imitation by Norman Shaw of old street archi- 
tecture. 

On the opposite side of Leadenhall Street, at the north- 



36o WALKS IN LONDON. 

west corner of Lime Street, was the House of the East 
India Company, " the most celebrated commercial associa- 
tion of ancient or modern times." The Company was 
incorporated in 1600, and first leased these premises from 
Lord Craven, who was born in the old house on this site. 
The East India House was several times rebuilt, and finally 
pulled down in 1862, when its most valuable contents were 
transferred to the Indian Museum in Whitehall. Charles 
Lamb was a clerk in the House. " My printed works," he 
said, " were my recreations — my true works may be found 
on the shelves in Leadenhall Street, filling some hundred 
folios." 

Leadenhall Street joins Comhill (so called from a corn- 
market) where the conduit-fountain called the Standard 
(built 1582) formerly stood like a high round tower. Corn- 
hill also had its may-pole, which was of prodigious size, for 
Chaucer, writing of vain-boasters, says that they look as 
if they could " bear the great shaft of Corn-hill." Gray 
the poet was born (December 26, 17 16) in Cornhill, 
where his father was an Exchange Broker, at a house on 
the site of No. 41, which was destroyed by fire in 
1748, and rebuilt by him. No. 65, the offices of Messrs. 
King the publishers, rebuilt in 187 1, stand opposite the 
place where the fountain known as " the Standard at Corn- 
hill" stood, at which the Great Fire stopped. The old 
house, while occupied by Messrs. Smith and Elder, was 
interesting from its association with Leigh Hunt, Thackeray, 
Mrs. Gaskell, Charlotte Bronte, and others. It was here 
that Charlotte and Anne Bronte presented themselves in 
1848, to prove their separate identity to the publishers who 
imagined, as all the world did then, that Currer, Acton, 



STo PETER'S, CORNHILL. 361 

and Ellis Bell were the same person. Hence also issued 
the '• Cornhill Magazine," with Thackeray as its first 
editor. 

SL MichaeTs, Cornhill, is one of the churches built by 
Wren after the Fire. Robert Fabyan, Alderman and Sheriff, 
who wrote the "Chronicles of England and France " (151 1), 
and the father and grandfather of John Stow the historian 
were buried in the old church. The marked feature of the 
present building is its great Perpendicular tower, a bad 
imitation of that of Magdalen College at Oxford. There is 
a rich modern door with a relief of St. Michael weighing 
souls. The interior is covered with foolish decorations in 
polychrome. Seven seats at the end of the nave are set 
apart as — the Royal pew, Diocesan, Corporation, Drapers', 
Merchant Tailors' and Rector's pews. 

St. Peter's^ Cor?thill — hideous outside — one of Wren's re- 
buildings and a singularly bad specimen of his work, claims 
to stand on the earliest consecrated ground in England, 
and to take precedence of Canterbury itself, for there 
(according to a tablet preserved in the vestry) King Lucius 
was baptized four hundred years before the coming of 
Augustine and the conversion of Ethelbert, when he made 
it the metropolitan church of the whole kingdom. The 
wood screen in this church was set up by Bishop Beveridge 
(of St. Asaph), who was rector here 1672 — 1704, and is men- 
tioned in one of his sermons. A touching monument by 
Ryley commemorates the seven children of Mr. and Mrs. 
Woodmason, burnt in their beds in their father's house in 
Leadenhall Street, January 18, 1782. The cherub heads 
upon the monument are known from a beautiful engraving 
by Bartolozzi. 



362 WALKS IN LONDON. 

Change Alky, Cornhill (formerly Exchange Alley), leading 
into Lombard Street, was the chief centre of the money 
transactions of the last century, when the Stock Exchange 
was held here at "Jonathan's Coffee House." It was the 
great scene of action in the South Sea Bubble of 1720, by 
which so many thousands of credulous persons were ruined. 

Another Coffee House in this alley which played a great 
part in the same time of excitement was " Garraway's," so 
called from Garway its original proprietor. It was here 
that tea was first sold in London. 

" There is a gulf where thousands fall, 
There all the bold adventiu-ers came ; 
A narrow sound, though deep as hell, 
Change Alley is the dreadful name. 

Meanwhile, secure on Garway's cliflFs, 

A savage race by shipwrecks fed. 
Lie waiting for the founder'd skiffs, 

And strip the bodies of the dead." 

Swift. 

Now we reach the Royal Exchange, whence we set forth. 



CHAPTER X. 
THE TOWER AND ITS SURROUNDINGS. 

FROM the statue of William IV. at the foot of King 
William Street, Little East Cheap and Great Tower 
Street lead to the Tower of London. This is one of 
the busiest parts of the City, movement is impeded, and all 
the side streets teem with bustle and traffic. At the end oi 
Great Tower Street is the Church of Allhallows^ Barking, 
which derives its surname from having been founded by the 
nuns of Barking Abbey before the reign of Richard L, who 
added a chantry in honour of the Virgin where the north 
chancel aisle now is. This chantry — " Berking Chapel " — 
contained a famous image of the Virgin placed there by 
Edward I. in consequence of a vision before his father's 
death, in which she assured him that he should subdue 
Wales and Scotland, and that he would be always victorious, 
whilst he kept her chapel in repair. To the truth of this 
vision he swore before the Pope, and obtained an indul- 
gence of forty days for all penitents worshipping here at her 
shrine. In the instrument which set this forth, prayer is 
especially asked for the soul of Richard I., " whose heart is 
buried beneath the high altar " : the lion-heart, however, is 
leally m the museum at Rouen, having been exhumed trom 



364 WALKS IN LONDON. 

the cathedral, where it was deposited when the king's body 
was buried at Fontevrault. 

The church, which is chiefly Perpendicular, is entered 
on the south by a handsome modern Decorated door. The 
interior has all the charm which want of uniformity gives, 
and its old ironwork (observe the sword-rests of three Lords- 
Mayor — the last of 1727 — over the Corporation Pew), its 
ancient monuments, and numerous associations give it a 
peculiar interest. Making the circuit of the church we may 
notice — 

North Aisle. The beautiful canopied altar tomb of John Croke, 
Alderman and Skinner, 1477, and his wife Margery, 1490, who 
bequeathed her " gieat chalys of silver guilt " to the church, to have 
the souls of herself and her husband more "tenderly prayed for." 
They are represented, in brass, accompanied by small groups of their 
sons and daughters, with prayers coming from their lips : these, and 
the coats of arms, are enamelled, not incised. 

The figure of Jerome Bonalius, 1583, an Italian (probably the 
Venetian Consul), kneeling at a desk. 

Brass of Thomas Virby, Vicar, 1453. 

Brass of John Bacon, T437, and his wife, very well-executed figures 
with flowing draperies. He was a woolman and is represented on his 
bag. The inscription is in raised letters. 

Pavement of North Aisle. The grave of George Snayth, 1651, 
"sometimes auditor to William Lawd, late Archbishop of Canter- 
bury." Snayth, a witness of the archbishop's will, who bequeathed to 
him ;i^50, desired to rest near his master. (The windows in this aisle 
commemorate the escape of the church in the Great Fire.) 

The Altar, beneath which the headless body of Archbishop Laud 
was buried by his steward George Snayth, January 11, 1644. It is 
curious that Laud, the champion of the Book of Common Prayer, was 
buried according to the ceremonies of the Church of England, long 
after it was disused in most of the London churches. Ills body was 
removed to St. John's College, Oxford, in 1663. 

Nave. Brass of Roger James, 1563, bearing the arras of the 
Brewers' Company; and the noble Flemish brass of Andrewe Evjugar, 
citizen and salter, and his wife Ellyn, 1536, which has all the delicacy 
of a Memling picture and is well deserving of study. Ev)'ngar was 



ALLHALLOWS, BARKING. 365 

the son of a brewer at Antwerp, where his monument was probably 
executed. There is only one brass superior to it in England — in the 
Church of St. Mary Cray at Ipswich. On the upper part of this 
monument is a representation of the Virgin seated in a chair with the 
dead Christ upon her knees. On the right are the arms of the Salters' 
Company, on the left those of the Merchant Adventurers of Hamburg. 
The symbols of the four Evangelists appear at the angles of the inscrip- 
tion (from the litanies of the Sarum breviary), " Ne reminiscaris domine 
delicta nostra vel parentum nost. neque vindictam sumas de peccatis 
nostris." Above and below the figures are the words (from the second 
and third nocturn of the office for the dead, and the responsory in the 
second nocturn of the same), " Sana domine animam meam quia 
peccavi tibi. Ideo deprecor majestatem ut tu Deus deleas iniquitatem 
meam." 

Monument of John Kettlewell the Nonjuror, 1695, who desired "to 
lie in the same grave where Archbishop Laud was before interred." This 
volummous author was the Vicar of Coleshill, deprived in 1690 for re- 
fusing to take the oaths to William and Mary. His funeral service was 
performed by Bishop Ken. He " so happily and frankly explained all 
the details of our duty, that it is difficult to say whether he more formed 
the manners of men towards evangelical virtue, or exemplified it in his 
OAvn life." 

South Aisle. A canopied tomb of c. 1400, with a small enamel of 
the Resurrection. 

Brass of John Rusche, 1498 ; and that of Christopher Rawson, 
Merchant of the Staple, 15 18, and his two wives, for the repose of 
whose souls he founded a chantry in the chapel of St. Anne. 

The important brass of William Thynne, " chefe clerk of the kechyn " 
to Henry VIII., who " departed from the prison of his frayle body" 
in 1546. This brass is a palimpsest, the other side being engraved 
with the figure of an ecclesiastic, and was evidently one of the 
monastic brasses torn up at the Dissolution. Thynne wears the cham 
which was the badge of court officers, for he was Clerk of the Kitchen, 
Clerk of the Green Cloth, and Master of the Household to Henry VIII. 
He was the *' Thynnus Aulicus "—the courtier, of Erasmus,* and was 
the origmator of the wealth and power of the Thynne family. His 
father was Thomas Boteville, of an ancient family which came from 
Poitou in the reign of John, and which acquired the name of Thynne 
from John of th' Inn, one of its members who resided in an Inn of 
Court. William Thynne edited the first edition of the Works of 
Chaucer in 1532, which he dedicated to Henry VHL, and which was 

• Epist( Ise XV. 14. 



366 WALKS IN LONDON. 

complete, with the exception of " the Plowman's tale," which was then 
suppressed by the king's desire, but which appeared in the edition of 
1542, which was edited by his son Francis, who narrates — 

" This tale when Kinge Henry the Eigth had redde he called my 
father unto him and said : * William Th>Tine, I doubt this will not 
bee allowed ; for I suspect the bishoppes will call thee in question for 
ytt.' To whome my father, being in great favore with his prince, sayed, 
* If your grace be not offended I hope to be protected by you.' Where- 
upon the king did bidd hym go his waye and feare not. All which 
notwithstanding my father was called in question by the bishopps and 
heaveu at by Cardinall Wolseye his olde enemeye for many causes, but 
mostly for that my father had procured Skelton to publish his Collin 
Cloute against the Cardinall, the most part of which book was compiled 
in my father's house at Erith in Kent." 

The only son of William Thynne was Francis, the Lancaster Herald, 
a distinguished antiquary, who assisted Holinshed in his chronicles, 
" seeing," says Fuller, " the shoulders of Atlas himself may be weary, 
if not sometimes beholden to Hercules to relieve him." Of his 
nephews, one was William, Steward of the Marches, who has a noble 
alabaster tomb in Westminster Abbey, and another Sir John Thynne 
of Longleat, who founded the House of Bath. 

Brass of Elizabeth (1540) wife of W. Denham, Alderman and 
Sheriff, whose portrait is in the Ironmongers' Hall. 

The carvings of the Font are by Gibbons. 

The Parish Register records the baptism, October 23, 1644, o^ 
"William, son of William Penn and Margarett his wife, of the Tower 
Liberty." The eldest son of Sir William Penn (Commander in Chief 
of the Navy under the Duke of York, Knighted in 1665) was bom " on 
the east side of Tower Hill, within a court adjoining to London 
Wall," * Being turned out of doors by his father for his Quaker 
opinions, he obtained a grant (in consideration of his father's services) 
from Charles II. of land in the province of New Netherlands in 
America, where he became the founder of " Pennsylvania." Return- 
ing to England, ne died at Beaconsfield in 1718." 

In the Churchyard of Allhallows was buried Humfery 
Monmouth, Alderman, the great benefactor of the early 
reformers, who harboured and helped Tyndale, was im- 
prisoned for heresy by Sir Thomas More, and who be- 

* f etter from P. Gibson to William Penn, the Quaker. 



TOWER HILL. 367 

queathed money for "four godly ministers" (Mr. Latimer, 
Dr. Barnes, Dr. Crome, and Mr. Taylor) " to preach reformed 
doctrines " in the church where he was buried. From its 
nearness to the Tower, this church also became the burial- 
place of several of its victims. Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, 
the Cardinal of St. Vitalis who was never allowed to wear 
his hat, his grave being " digged by the watches with their 
halberds," was laid here (without his head, which was 
exposed on London Bridge) "without coffin or shroud," 
near the north door, in 1535, but was afterwards moved 
that he might be near his friend Sir Thomas More in the 
Tower. Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey (beheaded for 
quartering the arms of Edward the Confessor, though he 
had a license to do so from the Heralds' College), " the first 
of the English nobility that did illustrate his birth with the 
beauty of learning,"* was also buried here in 1546, but was 
moved to Framlingham in 16 14. Here still reposes Lord 
Thomas Grey (uncle of Lady Jane), beheaded in 1554 for 
taking part in the rebellion of Sir Thomas Wyatt, and his 
perhaps may be the headless skeleton lately found at the 
west end of the nave.f 

The sign of the Czar's Head (No. 48), opposite this 
church, marks a house where Peter the Great, when in 
England, used to booze and smoke with his boon com- 
panions. 

We now emerge on Tower Hill, a large plot of open 
ground, surrounded with irregular houses. In one of these 
lived Lady Raleigh while her husband was imprisoned in the 
Tower. Where the garden of Trinity Square is now planted, 

• Camden. 

t For further details as to this church, consult "Collections in Illustration of 
the Parochial Hist, of Allhallows, Barking," by Joseph Alaskell. 



368 WALKS IN LONDON. 

a scaffold or gallows of timber was always erected for the 
execution of those who were delivered by writ out of the 
Tower to the sheriffs of London, there to be executed 
Only the queens and a very few other persons have suffered 
within the walls of the Tower — almost all the great historical 
executions have taken place here on the open hill. Amongst 
others, this honoured spot has been stained with the blood 
of Bishop Fisher, June 22, 1535 ; Sir Thomas More, July 6, 
1535; Cromwell, Earl of Essex, July 28, 1540; Henry 
Howard, Earl of Surrey, 1547 ; Thomas, Lord Seymour of 
Sudeley, 1549 ; the Protector Somerset, 1552 ; John Dudley, 
Earl of Northumberland, 1553; Lord Guildford Dudley, 
February 12, 1553; Sir Thomas Wyatt, 1554; Thomas 
Wentworth, Earl of Strafford, May 12, 1641 ; Archbishop 
Laud, January 10, 1645 ; Algernon Sydney, December 7, 
1683 ; the Duke of Monmouth, July 15, 1685 ; the Earl 
of Derwentwater and Lord Kenmuir, 17 15; Lords Kil 
marnock and Balmerino, August 18, 1746; and Simon, 
Lord Lovat, April 9, 1747, the last person beheaded in 
England, who died expressing his astonishment that such 
vast multitudes should assemble " to see an old grey head 
taken off." 

Below Tower Hill, separated from it by a wide moat and 
ramparts now planted with gardens on the side of the town, 
is the immense pile of fortifications known as the Tower of 
Londo7i. Though one of the most ancient, and quite the 
most historical, of English fortresses, a great feeling of 
disappointment will be inevitably felt by those who see it 
for the first time. Its picturesque points have to be care- 
fully sought for. Its general aspect is poor, mean, and 
uninteresting, a fault which is entirely owing to the feeble- 



THE TOWER, 369 

ness of our later English architects — to the same utter 
ignorance of the honour due to light and shadow — and the 
same sacrifice of general outline to finish, which has ruined 
Windsor Castle. Here, where an Italian would have used 
enormous blocks of stone, perfect rocks heaped one upon 
another, all work of rebuilding or restoration has been done 
with small stones neatly cut and fitted together like bricks, 
producing an impression of durable piteousness, which it 
requires all the romance of history to counteract. 

A tradition which ascribes the first building of the Tower 
to JuHus Csesar has been greatly assisted by Gray through 
the lines in the Bard — 

"Ye towers of Julius, London's lasting shame, 
With many a foul and midnight murder fed." 

But no existing buildings are of earlier date than the 
White Tower or Keep which was built by William the 
Conqueror in 1078. Gundulph, Bishop of Rochester, the 
builder of Rochester Castle, was overseer of the work. He 
was surnamed *' the Weeper " and appropriately " laid in 
tears the foundation of the fortress which was to be the 
scene of so much suffering." The Tower was much enlarged 
by William Rufus, of whom Henry of Huntingdon says, 
" He pilled and shaved the people with tribute, especially to 
spend about the Tower of London and the great hall of 
Westminster." By Rufus and Henry I., St. Thomas's Tower 
was built over the Traitor's Gate, — " they caused a grate 
castle to be builded under the said Tower, to wit on the 
south side towards the Thames, and also encastelated the 
same about." In the reign of Henry I. we read of Ralph 
Flambard, Bishop of Durham, being imprisoned in the 

VOL. I. E B 



37C WALKS IN LONDON. 

Tower, but a rope was sent to him, concealed in a cask of 
wine, and he escaped safely, being let down from the walls. 

King Stephen frequently resided in the Tower. The 
moat was made by Longchamp Bishop of Ely in 1190 when 
he was intrusted with its defence for Richard I. against 
John. He " enclosed the castle with an outward wall of 
stone, thinking to have environed it with the river of 
Thames." Of all English sovereigns the Tower was most 
enriched and adorned by Henry III., for he regarded it 
rather as a palace than a fortress. Griffin, Prince of Wales, 
was imprisoned here in 1244 and attempted to escape by a 
rope made of his bedclothes, but it broke, and he met with 
a frightful death in the moat. Under Edward I. the great 
prisoners taken in the Scottish wars were immured here. 
Baliol, after three years, was released on the intercession 
of the Pope, but William Wallace and Sir Simon Eraser 
only left their prison to be executed with the most horrible 
brutality in Smithfield. 

Edward U. frequently resided in the Tower, where his 
eldest daughter, thence called Jane of the Tower, was born. 
Under Edward III., John, King of France, and David 
Bruce, King of Scotland, were imprisoned here. In the 
reign of Richard II. the Tower was continually filled with 
prisoners who were victims of the jealousy of rival factions, 
the most illustrious being the young king's tutor, the excel- 
lent Sir Simon Burley, of whom Froissart says, " To write 
of his shameful death right sore displeaseth me ; for when I 
was young I found him a noble knight, sage and wise . . . 
yet no excuse could be heard, and on a day he was brought 
out of the Tower and beheaded like a traitor — God have 
mercy on his soul." For this act, when his own friends 



I 



THE TOWER 371 

obtained the chief power, King Richard caused his uncle 
the Duke of Gloucester to be put to death at Calais, and 
the Earl of Arundel lost his head on Tower Hill. 

During the rebellion of Wat Tyler, when the king, who 
had previously been fortified in the Tower, was induced to 
go forth to meet the insurgents, the rebels broke into the 
fortress and pillaged it, beheading Sudbury, Archbishop of 
Canterbury (who had abused them as " shoeless ribalds "), 
Sir Robert Hales the treasurer, and others whom they 
found there. It was in the upper chamber of the White 
Tower that Richard H. abdicated in favour of his cousin 
Henry of Bolingbroke, and hence Henry IV. went to his 
coronation, a custom which was followed by all after 
sovereigns of England till James II. Henry, Earl of 
Huntingdon, the king's brother-in-law, was the first of a long 
series of victims beheaded in the Tower in the reign of 
Henry IV., in which Prince James of Scotland, son of 
Robert III., was imprisoned there. Under Henry V. the 
prisons were filled with the captives of Agincourt, including 
Charles, Duke of Orleans,* and his brother John, Count of 
Angouleme. In this reign also the Tower became the 
prison of many of the reformers called Lollards, of whom 
the greatest was Lord Cobham, who was dragged by a chain 
from the Tower to be burnt in St. Giles's Fields. 

In the reign of Henry VI. the fortress was occupied by 
the prisoners of the Wars of the Roses, and. here in June, 
147 1, King Henry VI. died mysteriously just after the 
Battle of Tewkesbury — according to Fabian and Hall, by 
the hand of the Duke of Gloucester, who " murthered the 

* The father (by his third wife) of Louis XII. He had previously married 
Isabella of Valois, widow of Richard II. of iingland. 



372 WALKS IN LONDON, 

said kyng with a dagger." Queen Margaret was imprisoned 
here till 1475. T^^ Y^^^^ afterwards George, Duke of 
Clarence, brother of Edward IV., was put to death in the 
Tower. With the death of Edward IV. the darkest page 
in the annals of the fortress is opened by the execution of 
Lord Hastings, soon to be followed by the alleged murder 
of the young King Edward V., and his brother Richard, 
Duke of York. 

Hence Elizabeth of York went to her coronation as wife 
of Henry VII., and here she died after her confinement in 
1503. Her little daughter Katherine was the last princess 
born in the Tower. The most illustrious victim of this 
reign was Edward, Earl of Warwick, son of the murdered 
Duke of Clarence, and the last male Plantagenet, who was 
beheaded in 1499, his only crime being his royal blood. 
In the same year Perkin Warbeck, the White Rose of 
England, who claimed to be the younger son of Edward 
IV., was imprisoned here before being taken to be hung at 
Tyburn. 

The accession of Henry VIII. witnessed the imprison- 
ment and execution of Empson and Dudley the tax- 
gatherers of his father, and in 1521 that of Edward Bohun, 
Duke of Buckingham, whose chief fault was his descent 
from Thomas of Woodstock, youngest son of Edward III. 
The next great executions on Tower Hill were those of 
Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, and Sir Thomas More, who 
suffered for refusing to acknowledge the king's supremacy. 
These were soon followed by the private execution of 
Queen Anne Boleyn and her brother Lord Rochford, and 
by the death on Tower Hill of Henry Norris, William 
Brereton, Sir Francis Weston, and Mark Smeaton for her 



THE TOWER. 373 

sake. The endless victims of the northern insurrections 
and of the dissolution of monasteries next succeeded to 
the prisons of the Tower, followed by those accused of 
treasonable correspondence with Cardinal Pole, includmg 
his venerable mother, Margaret, Countess of Salisbury, 
niece of the Kings Edward IV. and Richard III., who was 
brutally beheaded within the walls. In 1540 Thomas 
Cromwell, Earl of Essex, the chief promoter of the dissolu- 
tion of monasteries, who had oflfended Henry VIII. by 
bringing about his marriage with Anne of Cleves, was 
imprisoned and brought to the block. His execution was 
soon followed by that of Queen Catherine Howard and her 
confidante Lady Rochford. 

In 1546 Anne Askew was racked in the Tower for the 
Protestant faith before her burning in Smithfield. And in 
1547 the poet Earl of Surrey was executed on Tower Hill, 
the only ground for the accusation of high treason brought 
against him being that he quartered (as he had a right to 
do) the arms of Edward the Confessor, and that he was 
fond of conversing with foreigners. His father Thomas 
Howard, Duke of Norfolk, only escaped being added to the 
victims of Henry VIII.'s jealousies by the tyrant's death. 

In the reign of Edward VI., Thomas, Lord Seymour of 
Sudeley, his uncle, and the widower of his stepmother. 
Queen Katherine Parr, was beheaded on Tower Hill for 
government intrigues, and for having defrauded the mint to 
an amount of something like ;;^4o,ooo and having established 
cannon foundries where he had twenty-four cannons ready 
for immediate service. 

" As touching the kind of his death, whether he be saved or no, I 
refer that to God. In the twinkling of an eye He may save a man, 



37* WALKS IN LONDON. 

and turn his heart. What He did I cannot tell. And when a man 
hath two strokes with an axe, who can tell but between two strokes he 
doth repent } It is hard to judge. But this I will say, if they will 
ask me what I thinlc of his death, that he died very dangerously, 
irksomely, and horribly. He was a wicked man, and the realm is weU 
rid of him." — Latimer's Sermons, p. 162. 

In 1 55 1 the King's other uncle, the Duke of Somerset, 
Lord Protector, being most unjustly found guilty of felony, 
was beheaded amid the tears of the people. His execution 
was followed by those of his friends, Sir Thomas Arundel, 
Sir Michael Stanhope, Sir Ralph Vane, and Sir Miles 
Partridge. 

The accession of Mary brought Lady Jane Grey and her 
husband Lord Guildford Dudley to the Tower and the 
scaffold, with her father-in-law John Dudley, Duke of 
Northumberland, and his adherents Sir John Gates and 
Sir Thomas Palmer. The rebellion of Sir Thomas Wyatt, 
a principal cause in the execution of Lady Jane Grey, led 
to his being beheaded, to the execution of the Duke of 
Suffolk and Lord Thomas Grey, and to the imprisonment 
in the Tower of the Princess Elizabeth. 

The accession of Elizabeth sent a number of Roman 
Catholic bishops and abbots to the Tower for refusing to 
acknowledge her supremacy. Lady Katherine Grey, sister 
of Lady Jane, was also kept in prison till her death in 1567 
for the crime of a secret marriage with the Earl of Hertford. 
Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk, son of the unfortunate 
Earl of Surrey, was imprisoned and executed in 157 1, for 
leaving aspired to the hand of Mary, Queen of Scots. In 
the latter part of the queen's reign numbers of Jesuit priests 
were committed to the Tower and executed, and Henry 
Percy, Earl of Northumberland, being imprisoned there, 



THE TOWER. 375 

died by suicide. Sir John Perrot, a natural son of Henry 
VIII., unjustly imprisoned, died of a broken heart. 
Through the bitter jealousy of the reigning court favourites, 
Cecil and Raleigh, Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex, was 
imprisoned and beheaded privately in the Tower in 1601, 
his execution being followed by those of Sir Christopher 
Blunt, Sir Charles Danvers, Sir Gilley Merrick, and Henry 
Cuffe. 

Shortly after James I. came to the throne an alleged 
plot for the re-establishment of popery and raising of Lady 
Arabella Stuart to the throne led to that lady's imprison- 
ment for life in the Tower (where she died insane) with 
Lord Thomas Grey and Lord Cobham, and to the execution 
of George Brook the brother of the latter. Sir Walter 
Raleigh, imprisoned at the same time (1603), was released 
in 1616, but he was reimprisoned in 1618 to gratify the 
malice of Gondomar the Spanish ambassador, and (though 
he had been appointed admiral of the fleet with command 
of an expedition to Guiana, during bis short interval of 
liberty) he was beheaded two months afterwards on his old 
accusation. 

In 1606 the dungeons of the Tower were filled with the 
conspirators of the Gunpowder Plot, who were all hung, 
cut down, and disembowelled while they were still living. 
In 16 13 Sir Thomas Overbury was poisoned in the Tower 
by the Earl of Rochester and the Countess of Essex, who 
obtained a pardon by the favour of King James, though he 
had prayed that " God's curse might light upon him and his 
posterity (which it did) if he spared any that were guilty." 

In 1630 Sir John Eliot was committed to the Tower, 
where he wrote his " Monarchic of Man," and continued, 



370 WALKS IN LONDON, 

though his lodging was ten times changed, till his death in 
Nov. 1632. 

In 1 64 1 Thomas Wentworth, Earl of Stafford, unjustly 
condemned for high treason against the will of his sovereign 
Charles I., was beheaded on Tower Hill, having been 
blessed from a window on his way to execution by Arch- 
bishop Laud, who was then himself a prisoner, having been 
impeached for Romish tendencies, and who was himself 
beheaded on January 4, 1643. In the wars which followed, 
Sir John Hotham and his son, the Duke of Hamilton, the 
Earl of Holland and Lord Capel were imprisoned and 
suffered death for the cause of their king. 

With the return of Charles II. came the imprisonment 
and death of many of the regicides, but the next important 
executions were those of Algernon Sidney and William Lord 
Russell; and that of the Duke of Monmouth, who was 
executed for high treason against his uncle James II. in 
1685. In 1688 the Archbishop of Canterbury and six 
bishops were imprisoned in the Tower for a libel upon 
the king and his government. Executions were now rare, 
but numerous prisoners still filled the Tower. Among 
these in 1722 was Bishop Atterbury, whose imprisonment 
for Jacobitism is commemorated by Pope — 

" How pleasing Atterbury's softer hovir, 
How shone his soul uncouquered in the Tower." 

In 1 7 15 Lord Derwentwater and Lord Kenmuir were be- 
headed on Tower Hill for their devotion to the Stuarts. 
The Earl of Nithsdale escaped in a cloak and hood pro- 
vided by his heroic wife. Loyalty to the Stuarts likewise 
led in 1746 to the execution of Lords Kilmarnock, 



THE MIDDLE GATE. 377 

Balmerino, and Lovat, with Charles Ratcliffe, younger 
brother of Lord Der went water. 

The parts of the Tower generally exhibited to the public 
are the Armoury and the Jewel Tower. These, however, 
are the parts least woith seeing. To visit the rest of the 
Tower an order should be obtained from the Constable. 
Visitors are shown over the Tower by Beef eaters ^ as the 
Wardens of the Tower are called, who still wear the pictur- 
esque dress of the Yeomen of the Guard of Henry VIII. 
established in 1285, a privilege which was obtained for 
tliem in perpetuity from Edward VI. by his uncle the 
Protector Somerset, who had noted their diligence in their 
office while he was a prisoner in the Tower. It has been 
well observed that the dress of the Beefeaters in the Tower 
shows, more than anything else in London, the reverence 
of England for her past. Their name is supposed to be 
derived from the fact that the commons of the early Yeomen 
of the Guard, when on duty, was beef — and the name was 
probably derisory, beef being then a cheap article of con- 
sumption, for when under Henry VIII. butchers were 
compelled by law to sell their mutton at three farthings, 
beef was only a half-penny. 

Before reaching the moat we pass by what is called "the 
Spur " beneath the Middle Gate, where an ancient arch with 
a portcuUis is now built into modernised bastions. This 
was the gate where Elizabeth, coming from Canonbury 
before her coronation, on entering the fortress which had 
been her prison, alighted from her palfrey, and falling upon 
her knees " offered up to Almighty God, who had delivered 
her from a danger so imminent, a solemn and devout 
thanksgiving for an 'escape so miraculous/ as she ex- 



378 WALKS IN LONDON. 

pressed it herself, 'as that of Daniel out of the mouths of 
the Lioni.'" * 

Adjoining the Middle Gate was \\\QLion Tower, with a semi- 
circular area, where the kings of England formerly kept their 
wild beasts. The first of these were three leopards pre- 
sented to Henry III. by the Emperor Frederick, in allusion 
to the royal arms. A bear was soon added, for which the 




Middle Tower. 

sheriffs of London were ordered to provide a muzzle and iron 
chain to secure him when out of the water, and a strong cord 
to hold him "when fishing in the Thames." An elephant 
was procured in the same reign, and a lion in that of 
E Iward II. The wild beasts at the Tower were the most 
popular sight of London in the last and the beginning of 
the present century, — " Our first visit was to the lions," 

* See Purnet's " History of the Reformation.'' 



THE TRAITOR'S GATE, ii^ 

says Addison in the " Freeholder." In 1834 the royai 
menagerie was used as a foundation for the Zoological 
Gardens collection. To the right is a terrace along the 
bank of the Thames, where we should walk to admire the 
wide reach of the Thames, here called the Pool, crowded 
with shipping, so that one seems to be walking through a 
gallery of beautiful Vanderveldes. The first steps leading 
to the river are the Queen's Stairs (once much wider), 
where the sovereigns embarked for their coronations. The 
wharf from which we are gazing is the same which — twice 
destroyed and twice rebuilt during his reign — made Henry 
III. so excessively unpopular with the Londoners. 

" A monk of St. Alban's, who tells the tale, asserts that a priest who 
was passing near the fortress saw the spirit of an archbishop, dressed in 
his robes, holding a cross, and attended by the spirit of a clerk, gazing 
sternly on these new works. As the priest came up, the figure spake 
to the masons, ' Why build ye these ? ' As he spoke he struck the 
walls sharply with the holy cross, on which they reeled and sank into 
the river, leaving a wreath of smoke behind. The priest was too much 
scared to accost the more potent spirit ; but he turned to the humble 
clerk and asked him the archbishop's name — ' St. Thomas the Martyr,' 
said the shade. . . . The ghost further informed the priest that 
the two most popular saints in our calendar, the Confessor and the 
Mart)T, had undertaken to make war upon these walls. ' Had they 
been built,' said the shade, * for the defence of London, and in order 
to find food for masons and joiners, they might have been borne ; but 
they are built against the poor citizens ; and if St. Thomas had not 
destroyed them, the Confessor would have swept them away.' 

" The names of these popular saints still cling to the Watergate. 
One of the rooms, fitted up as an oratory, and having a piscina still 
perfect, is called the Confessor's Chapel ; and the barbican itself, 
instead of bearmg its official name of Watergate, is only known as St. 
Thomas's tower." — Hepworth Dixon. 

An arch beneath the terrace forms the approach to the 
Traitor's Gate, through which the water formerly reached to 
the stairs within the gloomy low-browed arch whicn we still 



380 WALKS IN LONDON. 

see. Here it was that Anne Boleyn was landed, having 

been hurried hither without warning from a tournament at 

Greenwich, and fell upon her knees upon the steps, praying 

God to defend her, as she was innocent of the crime of 

which she was accused. Here, eighteen years after, her 

daughter Elizabeth stepped on shore, exclaiming, " Here 

landeth as true a subject, being a prisoner, as ever landed 

at these stairs, and before thee, O God, I speak it." Fuller 

mentions the proverb, " A loyal heart may be landed at 

Traitor's Gate "— 

" That gate misnamed, through which before, 
"Went Sidney, Russell, Raleigh, Cranmer, More." 

Rogers^ Human Life. 

In the room over the gate died the last Lord Grey of 
Wilton (1614) after eleven years of cruel imprisonment — on 
accusation of wishing to marry Lady Arabella Stuart without 
permission of James I. 

Beyond the Traitor's Gate, guarding the outer ward 
towards the river, were the Cradle lower^ the Well Tower, 
and the Galleyman Tower, Near the last was the approach 
called the Iron Gate. 

Returning to the main entrance, we pass into the Outer 
Ward through the Byward lower (so called from the pass- 
word given on entering it), having on the left the Bell 
Tower, in which Bishop Fisher and Lady Arabella Stuart 
were confined. There is a similar "Bell Tower" at 
Windsor, there almost the only remnant of the ancient 
castle. 

We should examine the Traitor's Gate as we pass it. 
The walls, both at the sides and in front towards the river, 
are perforated with little passages, with loopholes from 



THE TRATTOR'S GATE, 



381 



which the Lieutenant of the Tower could watch, unseen, 
the arrival of the prisoners. We may linger a moment at 
the top of its steps also, to recollect that it was here that as 
Sir Thomas More was being led back to prison, after his 
condemnation, with the fatal sign of the reversed axe carried 
before him, his devoted daughter Margaret, who had been 
watching unrecognised amid the crowed, burst through the 




Traitor's Gate. 



guards and flinging herself upon his neck, besought his 

blessing. 

" The blushing maid 
Who through the streets as through a desert stray'd, 
And when her dear, dear father passed along, 
Would not be held ; but bursting through the throng, 
Halberd and axe, kissed him o'er and o'er, 
Then turned and wept, then sought him as before, 
Believing she should see his face no more." 

Rogers' Human Life* 



382 



WALKS IN LONDON. 



Margaret was forced away from her father, but a second time 
broke away and threw her arms round his neck, with such 
piteous cries of " Oh my father, my father ! " that the very 
guards were melted into tears, while he, " remitting nothing 
of his steady gravity," gave her his solemn blessing and 
besought her ** to resign herself to God's blessed pleasure, 
and to bear her loss with patience." 







The Bloody Gate. 



Immediately opposite the Traitor's Gate, another ancient 
arch with a portcuUis admits us to the I?iner Ward. The 
old ring on the left of the arch is that to which the rope 
was fastened, stretched across the roadway, from the boat 
which brought in the prisoners. This is altogether the 
most picturesque point in the building. It is called the 
Bloody Tower, from the belief that here the sons of Edward 



THE WAKEFIELD TOWER, 383 

IV. were murdered by order of their uncle Richard III. 
There is not, however, any proof that, if the murder was 
committed, it occurred here, and the present name has only 
been given to the place since the reign of Elizabeth : it was 
previously called " the Garden Tower," because it joined 
the constable's garden, which now forms part of the parade. 

Though there is no proof that the princes were murdered 
here, a very old tradition points out the angle at the foot of 
the wall, outside the gate on the right, as the place of their 
hasty burial by their reputed assassins, Dighton and Forrest, 
before their removal by Richard III. to the foot of the 
staircase in the White Tower. 

The gate looks the same now as it did when Sir Thomas 
Wyatt passed through it to his prison, when Sir John 
Bridges seized him and shook him by the collar, calling 
him names and saying — " but that the law must pass upon 
thee, I would stick thee with my dagger " — " To the which," 
says Holinshed, " Wyatt, holding his arms under his side, 
and looking grievously with a grim look upon the lieutenant, 
said, * It is no mastery now,' and so passed on." 

It is from the little portico on the right within the Bloody 
Gate that nightly, at n p.m., the sentry of the guard 
challenges the Chief Warder having the keys of the fortress 
— " Who goes there ? " " Keys." " Whose keys ? " " Queen 
Victoria's keys." Upon which the Warder exclaims, " God 
bless Queen Victoria." The soldiers respond, the keys 
pass on, and the guard disperse. 

Just within the gate, on the right, some steps lead into 
the Wakefield Tower, where the Regalia is now kept. This 
tower, which is said to derive its name from the prisoners 
kept here after the Battle of Wakefield, has a beautiful 



3«+ 



WALKS IN LONDON. 



vaulted roof. Opening from the raised recess of the window 
on the south side is the oratory of Henry VI., which 
tradition points out as the scene of his murder. The centre 
of the chamber is occupied by a great glass-case containing 
the Regalia, with the magnificent gold plate used at Coro- 
nation banquets. The collection of plate and jewels here 




The Wakefield Towei. 



is valued at three millions. The most important objects 
are — 

The Queen's State Crowfi, made 1838. It is covered with precious 
stones. In front, in the centre of a cross of diamonds, is the famous 
ruby given to the Black Prince by Don Pedro of Castile (1367) after 
the Battle of Najera. Henry V. wore it in his helmet at the Battle of 
Agincourt. 

St. Edward's Crown, made for the Coronation of Charles II., and 
used ever since at coronations. It replaced a crown destroyed during 
the Commonwealth, which tradition ascribed to the Confessor. 



THE REGALIA, 385 

The Prince of Wales's Crown, of gold, without jewels. 

The Crown used for the Queen's Consort, of gold, set with diamonds 
and precious stones. 

The Queen's Circlet, made for Mary of Modena, wife of James II. 

The Orb, a ball of gold, set -with jewels and surmounted by a cross, 
held by the sovereigns in their right hand at coronation, and carried in 
their left on their return to Westminster Hall. This is a badge of 
universal authority, borrowed from the Roman emperors. 

St. Ed-ward's Staff, a golden sceptre carried before the sovereign at 
coronation. 

The King's Sceptre with the Cross, which is placed in the right 
hand of the sovereign at coronation by the Archbishop of Canterbury. 

The King's Sceptre with the Dove, surmounted by a cross, with a 
dove as the emblem of Mercy. 

The Queen's Sceptre with the Cross, 

The Queen's Ivory Rod, an ivory sceptre, with a golden cross and 
dove, made for Mary of Modena. 

The ArmillcE, or Bracelets, worn by sovereigns at coronations. 

The Royal Spurs, carried by ancient custom at coronations by the 
Lords Grey de Ruthyn, as representatives of the Earls of Hastings. 

The Ampulla, or golden eagle, which holds the consecrated oil at 
coronations. The spoon belonging to the Ampulla is the oldest piece 
of plate in the collection. 

The Curtana, or Sword of Mercy, carried at coronations between 
the Swords of Temporal and Spiritual Justice. 

The Salt-cellar of State— 2l model of the White Tower. 

The Silver Fountain, presented to Charles II. by the town of Ply- 
mouth. 

The Silver Fojtt, used at the baptisms of the royal chUdren. 

The crown jewels have frequently been pledged by the 
English kings to Flemish and French merchants. A deter- 
mined attempt to carry them ofif was made by an Irishman 
named Thomas Blood in the reign of Charles II. He was 
a desperate ruffian, who, amongst other wild deeds, had 
carried off the Duke of Ormond and very nearly succeeded 
in hanging him at Tyburn to avenge the deaths of some of 
his associates in a Dublin insurrection, when the Duke was 
Lord Lieutenant. On the present occasion he came first 

VOL. i. c c 



38b WALKS IN LONDON, 

with his supposed wife to see the Regah'a, and while there 
the woman pretended to be taken ill, and her being con- 
veyed into the rooms of Talbot Edwards, the Deputy- 
keeper, then eighty years old, was made the pretext for an 
acquaintance, which ended in a proposition on the part of 
Blood to bring about a marriage between his son and the 
daughter of Edwards. Some days after he returned with 
the imaginary bridegroom and two other companions, and, 
while waiting for the lady, begged to show them the crown 
jewels. Edwards complied, and, as soon as the door, 
according to custom, was locked on the inside, they gagged 
the old man, beat him till he was half senseless, and began 
to pack up the regalia. Fortunately young Edwards 
returned from Flanders at that moment and arrived to see 
his father. The old keeper, hearing him, contrived to cry 
out " Murder," and the conspirators made off, Blood 
carrying the crown, and one of his companions, Parrot, the 
orb. They were pursued and seized. The most extra- 
ordinary part of the story is, that backed by the remi- 
niscence of his attack on the Duke of Ormond, Blood so 
contrived to terrify the king by his account of the vengeance 
which his friends would take in case of his execution, that 
he was not only released, but allowed a pension of ;£"5oo a 
year! while poor old Edwards, promised a pension which 
was never paid, was allowed to die almost in destitution. 

Before the Regalia were removed hither, the Wakefield 
Tower was used as a Record office. It was here that 
Selden, with Sir Robert Cotton, searched for the precedents 
upon which the Petition of Rights was founded. Here also 
Prynne forgot the loss of his ears in compiling materials 
for his books, for when sonie one asked Charles II. at 



THE WHITE TOWER. 387 

the Restoration what should be done to keep Prynne quiet, 
he said, '* Let him amuse iiimself with writing against the 
Catholics and ponng over the records in the Tower," of 
which he forthwith gave him the custody, with a salary of 
;^5oo a year. 

The centre of the Inner Ward is occupied by the mighty 
White Tower, an immense quadrangular building with 
corner turrets, and pierced with Norman arches and 
windows. Below it, on the south, under an open roof, are 
preserved several curious specimens of early guns, chiefly of 
the time of Henry VIII., the earliest dating from Henry 
VI. The most interesting pieces are " the Great Harry " 
of Henry VIII. and a gun inscribed " Thomas Semeur 
Knyght was Master of the King's Ordynannce when John 
and Robert Owen Brethren made thys Pece, Anno Domini 
1546." 

" If there be any truth in the proverb, * As long as Megg of West- 
minster,' it relateth to a great gun, lying in the Tower, commonly 
call'd • Long Megg,' and in troublesome times (perchance upon 111 
May-day in the reign of King Henry the Eighth) brought to West- 
minster, where for a good time it continued. But this nut (perchance) 
deserves not the craclcing." — Fuller's Worthies. 

At the south-west angle is the entrance of the Horse 
Armoury, through which visitors are usually hurried full 
speed by the warders. The gallery is decorated, fantas- 
tically and rather absurdly, with weapons. In the centre 
are twenty-two equestrian figures in suits of armour, illus- 
trating the different reigns from Edward I. to James II. 
The suits of armour are all ascribed to different kings 01 
knights, but for the most part without authority. 

The collection is a fine one, but not to be compared to 
those of Madrid and Vienna, or even to that of Turin. 



388 WALKS IN LONDON. 

Suits which really belonged to those to wnom they are 
assigned, and which therefore especially require notice, 
are — 

Right (in the recess). The glorious suit (of German manufacture) 
presented to Henry VIII. on his marriage with Katharine of An-agon. 
There is a similar suit in the Belvidere at Vienna. 

" The badges of this king and queen, the rose and the pomegranate, 
are engraved on various parts of the armour. On the fans of the 
genouiheres is the Sheaf of Arrows, the device adopted by Ferdinand, 
the father of Katharine, on his conquest of Granada. Henry's 
badges, the Portcullis, the Fleur-de-lys, and the Red Dragon, also 
appear ; and on the edge of the lanr boys or skirts are the initials of the 
royal pair, ' H. K.,' united by a true lover's knot. The same letters 
similarly united by a knot, which includes also a curious love-badge, 
formed of a half rose and half pomegranate, are engraved on the 
croupiere of the horse. 

" But the most remarkable part of the embellishment of this suit 
consists in the saintly legends which are engraved upon it. These 
consist of ten subjects, fuU of curious costume, and indicating curious 
manners." — Hewitt's Tower Armouries. 

Suit of russet armour, covered with filigree work, of the time of 
Edward VI. The horse armour is adorned with the badges of Bur- 
gundy and Granada. It probably belonged to the Archduke Philip, 
who married the unfortunate Joanna, daughter of Ferdinand and 
Isabella. This horse armour is beUeved to have been presented to 
Henry VII. when Philip and Joanna were forced by storms to take 
refuge in England in 1506. 

Left. Another suit of Henry VIII. — probably authentic. 

Tilting suit which belonged to Robert Dudley, Elizabeth's Earl of 
Leicester. Observe the initials R. D. on the genouilleres, and the 
Bear and Ragged Staff on the chanfron of the horse, encircled by the 
collar of the garter. This suit was originally gilt. 

Gilt suit of the Earl of Essex (1581), which was worn by the kmg'c 
champion at George II.'s coronation. 

Gilt suit of Charles I. given by the Armourers' Company. This suit 
was laid on the coffin of the Duke of Marlborough at his funeral. 

Gilt suit made for Heniy, Prince of Wales, eldest son of James I., 
as a child. 

Suit made for Charles II. in his fifth year. 

Armour attributed to James H. The neaa is mteresting as having 
been carved by Grinling Gibbons as a portrait of Charles H. 



QUEEN ELIZABETH'S ARMOURY, 3811 

Tlic oldest piece of armour here is an Asiatic suit of the time of the 
Crusades, brought from Tong Castle, in Shropshire. 

In a cabinet in the recess at the end of the armoury (right) are the 
awful " Headsman's Mask," and the Burgonet of Will Somers, jester 
to Sir Thomas More and afterwards to Henry VIH. : it is a kind of 
head-piece, with ram's horns. 

A staircase leads (passing through some imitation pillars 
and a Norman doorway formed out of a window) to Queen 
Elizabeth's armoury. Here also the old Norman walls are 
everywhere spoilt by deal panelling and a ridiculous deco- 
ration of pistols, sabres, &c., arranged in the forms of feathers 
or flowers. At the foot of the stairs is a curious suit of 
armour sent to Charles II. by the Great Mogul. 

On the left of Queen Elizabeths 4-^moury is a dark cell 
falsely called the prison of Sir Walter Raleigh. At the 
entrance are inscriptions left by prisoners after Sir Thomas 
Wyatt's rebellion — 

" He that indvreth to the ende shall be savid M. 10. 
R. Hudson. Kent. Ano. 1553." 

** Be faithful vnto the deth and I wU give thee a crowne of life. T. 
Fane. 1554." 

** T. Culpeper of Darford." 

The Armoury is closed by a ludicrous figure of Elizabeth 
on horseback, as she is supposed to have appeared at Tilbury 
Fort. The objects especially to be observed here are — 

The Instruments of Torture— thumbscrews ; bilboes ; the torture- 
cravat called " Skeffington's daughter" after its inventor; and a 
Spanish collar of torture taken in the Armada. 

The Axe which is said to have beheaded the Earl of Essex. 

The Block used at (and made for) the executions of Balmerino, 
Kilmarnock, and Lovat. 

Returning to the outside of the Tower, we find a second 
staircase. On its first landing (as an inscription tells) some 



390 WALKS IN LONDON. 

bones were found in the reign of Charles II., and were 
buried in Westminstei Abbey as those of the princes, sons 
of Edward IV. Edward V. was twelve at the time of his 
death, his brother Richard eight. Their murder has never 
been proved and is still one of the mysteries of history : 
Heywood, by his play of Edward IV., has assisted the belief 
in it. He thus describes their arrival here with their uncle 
Gloster. 

" Prince Edward, Uncle, what gentleman is that ? 

Gloster, It is, sweet Prince, Lieutenant of the Tower. 

Prince Edward. Sir, we are come to be your guests to-night. 
I pray you, tell me, did you ever know 
Our father, Edward, lodge within this place ? 

Brackenbury. Never to lodge, my liege, but oftentimes 
On other occasions I have seen him here. 

Prince Richard, Brother, last night when you did send for me. 
My mother told me, hearing we should lodge 
Within the Tower, that it was a prison. 
And therefore marvell'd that my uncle Gloster, 
Of all the houses for a king's receipt 
Within this city, had appointed none 
Where you might keep your court but only here. 

Gloster, Vile brats ! how they do descant on the Tower, 
My gentle nephew, they were ill-advised 
To torture you with such unfitting terms 
(Whoe'er they were) against this royal mansion. 
What if some part of it hath been reserved 
To be a prison for nobility, 
Follows it therefore that it cannot serve 
To any other use ? Caesar himself, 
That buUt the same, within it kept his court, 
And many kings since him ; the rooms are large, 
The building stately, and for strength beside 
It is the safest and the smrest hold you have. 

Prince Edward, Uncle of Gloster, if you think it 80» 
'Tis not for me to contradict your will ; 
We must allow it and are well content. 

Gloster. On then, in God's name. 

Prince Edward, Yet before we go, 



THE WHITE TOWER, 39- 

One question more with you, Master Lieutenanc ; 
We like you well ; and, but we do perceive 
More comfort in your looks than in these walls. 
For all our uncle Gloster's friendly speech, 
Our hearts would be as heavy still as lead. 
I pray you, tell me, at which door or gate 
Was it my uncle Clarence did go in 
When he was sent a prisoner to this place ? 

Brackenhury, At this, my liege ! Why sighs your Majesty ? 

Prince Edward. He went in here that ne'er came back agam ! 
But as God hath decreed, so let it be 1 
Come, brother, shall we go ? 

Prince Richard, Yes, brother, anywhere with you." 

Heywood thus pourtrays the night before the murder : 

*■* Scene, a Bedroom in the Tower — enter the two young Princes in 
their bedgowns and caps. 

Richard. How does your lordship ? 

Edward. Well, good brother Richard. 

How does yourself ? You told me your head ached. 

Richard. Indeed it does ; my lord, feel with your hands 
How hot it is ! 

Edward. Indeed you have caught cold 
With sitting yesternight to hear me read ; 
I pray thee go to bed, sweet Dick, poor little heart ! 

Richard. You'll give me leave to wait upon your lordship. 

Edward. I had more need, brother, to wait on you ; 
For you are sick, and so am not I. 

Richard. Oh lord ! methinks this going to our bed. 
How like it is to going to our grave. 

Edward. I pray thee do not speak of graves, sweet heart, 
Indeed thou frightest me. 

Richard. Why, my lord brother, did not our tutor teach 1la^ 
That when at night we went unto our bed 
We still should think we went unto our grave. 

Edward. Yes, that's true 

If we should do as every Christian ought, 
To be prepared to die at any hour. 
But I am heavy. 

Richard. Indeed, so am I. 

Edward. Then let us say our piayers and go to bea. 

[ They kneel, and. solemn music within : it ceases and they mr.] 



•J92 



WALKS IN LONDON. 



Richard. What, bleeds your grace ? 
Edward. Ay, two drops, and no more. 
Richard. God bless us both ; and I desire no more. 
Edward. Brother, see here what David says, and so say I : 
Lord, in thee will I trust although I die." 

Farts I. and IL 

Hence a winding stair leads to St. John's Chapel 
(of 1078), the most perfect Norman chapel in England, 
encircled by heavy circular pillars with square cornices 
and bases, and a very wide triforium over the aisles. 
The stilted horseshoe arches of the apse resemble on a 
small scale those of St. Bartholomew the Great. The 
pavement is modern but admirably adapted to the place. 
Here, while he was kneeling in prayer, Brackenbury, the 
Lieutenant of the Tower, received an order to murder the 
young Edward V. and his brother, and refused to obey it; 
here Mary attended a mass for her brother Edward VI. at 
the time of his funeral ; and here the Duke of Northumber- 
land, father-in-law of Lady Jane Grey, heard mass and 
publicly " kneeled down and axed all men forgiveness, and 
likewise forgave all men," before his execution. 

It is on this floor of the White Tower that Flambard, 
Bishop of Durham, Griffin, Prince of Wales, John Baliol, 
and the Duke of Orleans were confined. Baliol especially 
lived here in gi'eat state, with an immense household. 

Adjoining the chapel was the ancient Banqueting Hall^ 
now filled wiih weapons. The upper floor, also now 
divided as an armoury, was the Council Chamber in which 
Richard II. abdicated in favour of Henry IV. 

" King Richard was released from his prison, and entered the 
hall which had been prepared for the occasion, royally dressed, the 
sceptre in his hand and the crown on his head, but without supporters 
on either side. He addressed the company as follows : ♦ I have 



THE COUNCIL CHAMBER, 393 

reigned king of England, duke of Aquitaine, and lord of Ireland 
about twenty-two years, which royalty, lordship, sceptre, and crown I 
now freely and willingly resign to my cousin, Henry of Lancaster, and 
entreat of him, in the presence of you all, to accept this sceptre.' 
He then tendered the sceptre to the duke of Lancaster, who took it 
and gave it to the archbishop of Canterbury. King Richard next 
raised the crown with his two hands from his head, and, placing it 
before him, said, ' Henry, fair cousin, and duke of Lancaster, I present 
and give to you this crown, with which I was crowned king of England, 
and all the rights dependent on it.' 

" The duke of Lancaster received it, and delivered it over to the 
archbishop of Canterbury, who was at hand to take it. These two 
things being done, and the resignation accepted, the duke of Lancaster 
called in a public notary, that an authentic act should be drawn up of 
this proceeding, and witnessed by the lords and prelates then present. 
Soon after the king was conducted to where he had come from, and 
the duke and other lords mounted their horses to return home." — 
Froissart. 

Shakspeare has introduced the speech of King Richard — 

" I give this heavy weight from off my head. 
And this unwieldy sceptre from my hand, 
The pride of kingly sway from out my heart ; 
With mine own tears I wash away my balm, 
With mine own hands I give away my crown, 
With mine own tongue deny my sacred state, 
With mine own breath release all duteous oaths : 
All pomp and majesty I do forswear ; 
My manors, rents, revenues I forego ; 
My acts, decrees, and statutes I deny : 
God pardon all oaths that are broke to me ! 
God keep all oaths unbroke are made to thee ! 
Make me, that nothing have, with nothing griev'd ; 
And thou with all pleas'd, that hast all achiev'd ! 
Long mayst thou live, in Richard's seat to sit, 
And soon lie Richard in an earthen pit ! 
God save King Henry, unking'd Richard says, 
And send mm many years of sunshine days ! " 

Here also occurred that stranger scene in 1483, when the 
Protector (afterwards Richard III.), coming in amongst the 



394 WALKS IN LONDON. 

lords in council, asked the Bishop of Ely to send for some 
strawberries from his famous garden in Holborn. It is 
irresistible to quote Sir Thomas More's graphic account of 
what followed. 

"The protector set the lords fast in communing, and thereupon pray- 
ing them to spare him for a little while, departed thence. And soon 
after one hour, between lo and li, he returned into the chamber 
among them, all changed, with a wonderful sour, angry countenance, 
knitting the brows, frowning and frothing and gnawing on the lips ; and 
so sat him down in his place, all the lords much dismayed and sore 
marvelling of this manner of sudden change, and what thing should 
him ail. 

" Then, when he had sitten still a while, thus he began : ' What were 
they worthy to have, that compass and imagine the destruction of me, 
being so near of blood unto the king, and protector of his royal 
person and his realm ? * At this question all the lords sate sore 
astonished, musing much by whom this question should be meant, of 
which every man wist himself clear. Then the lord-chamberlain,* as 
he who for the love between them thought he might be boldest with 
him, answered and said that they were worthy to be punished as 
heinous traitors whoever they were. And all the others affirmed the 
same. 'That is,' quoth he, 'yonder sorceress, my brother's wife, and 
another with her,' meaning the queen. 

• *♦••• 

Then said the protector, * Ye shall all see in what wise that sorceress, 
and that other witch, of her counsel. Shore's wile, with their affinity, 
have by their sorcery and witchcraft wasted my body.' And therewith 
he plucked up his doublet-sleeve to his elbow, upon his left arm, 
when he shewed a werish withered ahn and small, as it was never 
other. And thereupon every man's mind sore misgave him, well per- 
ceiving that this matter was but a quarrel. For well they wist that 
the queen was too wise to go about any such folly. And also, if she 
would, yet would she, of all folk, least make Shore's wife of counsel, 
whom of all women she most hated, as that concubine whom the king 
her husband had most loved. And also no man was there present 
but well knew that his arm was ever such since his birth. 

«' Nevertheless the lord-chamberlain answered and said, * Certainly, 
my lord, if they have so heinously done, they be worthy heinous 
punishment.' 

* I.ord Hastings, whose wife, Catherine Neville, was R ichard's first cousin. 



THE WHITE TOWER, 395 

** * What,' quoth the protector, * thou servest me ill I ween with ifs 
and with ands ; I tell thee they have so done, and that I will make 
good on thy body, traitor.' And therewith, as in a great anger, he 
clapped his fist upon the board a great rap ; at which token given, one 
cried * treason ' without the chamber. Therewith a door clapped, and 
in came there tushing men in harness as many as the chamber might 
hold. And anon the protector said to the Lord Hastings, * I arrest 
thee, traitor.' * What me, my lord ? ' quoth he. * Yea thee, traitor,' 
quoth the protector. And another let fly at the Lord Stanley, who 
shrunk at the stroke, and fell under the table, or else his head had 
been cleft to the teeth ; for, as shortly as he shrank, yet the blood ran 
about his ears. 

" Then were they all quickly bestowed in divers chambers ; except 
the lord-chamberlain, whom the protector bad speed and shrive him 
apace, * for by S. Paul,' quoth he, * I will not to dinner till I see thy 
head off.' It booted him not to ask 'why'; but heavily he took a 
priest at adventm-e, and made a short shrift ; for a longer would not be 
suffered, the protector made so much haste to dinner, which he might 
not go to till this were done, for saving of his oath. So was he 
brought forth into the green, beside the chapel within the Tower, and 
his head laid down upon a long log of timber, and there stricken off; 
and afterward his body with the head interred at Windsor, beside 
the body of King Edward ; both whose souls our Lord pardon! " — Life 
of Richard in. 

Having looked out of the window whence Richard 
beheld the execution on Tower Green, we may enter the 
broad triforium of St. John's Chapel, whence there was a 
communication with the royal apartments. 

There is a glorious view from the leads on the summit of 
the White Tower. Greenwich is visible on a fine day. 
The turrets are restorations. In that by which we enter 
(N.E.) King John imprisoned the beautiful Maud, daughter 
of Robert Fitzwalter of Baynard's Castle. 

The vaults of the White Tower were used as prisons, 
though there is no authority for the statement of the 
tVarders that Bishop Fisher and Sir Thomas More were 
imprisoned there. As we descend, we may see the remains 



396 WALKS IN LONDON, 

of the old staircase on the right : a sword shown as Smith 
O'Brien's is kept there. The holes in which the rack was 
fixed upon which Anne Askew was tortured are still to be 
seen in the floor of the vault. Burnet narrates that the 
Lord Chancellor Wriothesley, throwing off his coat, himself 
drew it so severely that he almost tore her body asunder. 
In the prison called Little Ease Guy Fawkes was impri- 
soned, with his companions, and here he was racked, and 
confessed after thirty minutes of torture. On a wall in one 
of the vaults is the inscription, " Sacris vestris indutus, dum 
sacra mysteria servans, captus et in hoc angusto carcere 
inclusus. T. Fisher " — probably by a Jesuit priest involved 
in the conspiracy. 

The Armouries and the Regalia are the sights usually 
shown to strangers. Those really interested in the Tower 
will obtain leave to make the circuit of the smaller towers, 
of which there were twelve encircling the Inner Ward. 
Returning to the Bloody Gate, and ascending the steps on 
the right they will be shown the rooms over the gateway 
which are full of curious or great reminiscences. 

On the wall of a small chamber (left) on the first floor is 
an inscription by the Bishop of Ross, so long an active 
partisan of Mary, Queen of Scots, who, while here, confessed 
the Norfolk and Northumberland plots in her favour, and 
declared her privy to the death of Darnley : only the 
name is now legible, the rest of the inscription having been 
chipped by axes in the time of the Commonwealth. 
Another room on this floor is that whither Felton, the 
murderer of Buckingham, was brought to prison, blessed by 
the people on his way. Here also Colonel Hutchinson was 
imprisoned after the Restoration — " It was a great dark 



THE BLOODY TOWER, 397 

room," says Mrs. Hutchinson, " with no window in it, and 
the portcullis of a gate was drawn up within it, and below 
there sate every night a court of guard." The same prison 
was afterwards occupied by a very different character, 
James II. 's Judge Jeffreys, who was taken at Wapping in 
the dress of a sailor by a man he had injured, and who 
died here of drinking, having, during his imprisonment, 
been insulted by receiving a present of a barrel, apparently 
containing Colchester oysters, but really a halter. 

On the uppfir floor is the room where the supposed 
murder of the Princes took place. Its window opens upon 
a narrow passage by which the assassins are said to have 
entered from the outside walk upon the walls. The rooms 
have been subdivided in late times. In one of them Margaret 
Cheyne was imprisoned, the wild woman who excited the 
second pilgrim-invasion of Yorkshire in the reign of Henry 
VIII., its object being to overthrow the power of Cromwell 
and restore Catherine of Arragon. Here Dudley, Earl of 
Northumberland, father-in-law of Lady Jane Grey, was 
imprisoned, and hence he was led to the scaffold. Here 
was the first prison of Archbishop Cranmer. Henry, Earl 
of Northumberland, imprisoned for exciting a Catholic 
crusade against Elizabeth, shot himself here, June 21, 1585, 
to avoid the confiscation of his estates. In the same room 
Sir Thomas Overbury, in the reign of James I., underwent 
slow agonies of poisoning at the hands of the Earl and 
Countess of Somerset and their minions. Here also Sir 
Walter Raleigh lived through his second and longest im- 
prisonment of sixteen years, being accused of a plot in 
favour of Lady Arabella Stuart. His imprisonment was 
not rendered unnecessarily severe, and his wife and son 



398 WALKS IN LONDON, 

were allowed to live near him in the Tower. In the still 
existing room he wrote his " History of the World," and 
burnt its second volume as a sacrifice to Truth on being con- 
vinced that a murder, which he fancied that he had seen from 
his prison window, was only an optical delusion.* Here he 
received the visits of Ben Jonson and other clever men 
of the time, and of Prince Henry, who said, " No man but 
my father would keep such a bird in such a cage." In the 
adjoining garden he used to work, to cultivate rare plants, 
and distil curious essences from them. The narrow 
walk upon the wall, connected with these apartments, is 
still called Sir Walter RaleigJis Walk. 

We should next visit the Lieutenants Lodgings, where 
Mrs. Hutchinson was born, being the daughter of Sir Allan 
Apsley, Lieutenant of the To er. On the ground floor we 
may see the curious Axe ot Office of the Chief Warder, which 
was carried before the Lieutenant when he accompanied 
prisoners to the House of Lords. As they returned, the axe 
was carried before the prisoner. If the trial was not finished 
the face of the axe was away from him ; if he was con- 
demned it was turned towards him : thus those watching 
through the loopholes of the Traitor's Gate knew his fate at 
once. 

To the south room on the upper floor Guy Fawkes and 
his friends were brought for examination before Cecil, 
Nottingham, Mountjoy, and Northampton. Cecil wrote of 
Guy Fawkes, "He is no more dismayed than if he were 
taken for a poor robbery on the highway." There is a fine 
bust in wood of James I. over the chimney-piece, and the 
names of the conspirators are given on one of a set of 

• D'Tsraeli, *' Cunosities of Literature." 



THE LIEUTENANT'S LODGINGS. 399 

tablets on the left, which contain carious Latin inscriptions 
put up by Sir William Waad, Lieutenant of the Tower, 
to flatter the vainglorious James I., from some of which the 
following are translated : — 

** James the Great, King of Great Britain, illustrious for piety, justice, 
foresight, learning, hardihood, clemency, and the other royal virtues ; 
champion and patron of the Christian faith, of the public safety, and of 
universal peace ; author most subtle, most august, and most auspicious. 

" Queen Anne, the most serene daughter of Frederick the Second, 
invincible King of the Danes. 

" Prince Henry, ornament of nature, strengthened with learning, blest 
with grace, bom and given to us from God. 

** Charles, Duke of York, divinely disposed to every virtue. 

«< Elizabeth, full sister of both, most worthy of her parents. 

" DoThou, all-seeing, protect these as the apple of the eye, and guard 
them without fear from wicked men beneath the shadow of thy wings. 

" To Almighty God, the guardian, arrester, and avenger, who has 
punished this great and incredible conspiracy against our most merciful 
Lord the King, our most serene Lady the Queen, our divinely disposed 
Prince, and the rest of our Royal House ; and against all persons of 
quality, our ancient nobUity, our soldiers, prelates, and judges ; the 
authors and advocates of which conspiracy, Romanised Jesuits, of 
perfidious, Catholic, and serpent-like ungodliness, with others equally 
criminal and insane, were moved by the infamous desire of destroying the 
true Christian rehgion, and by the treasonous hope of overthrowing the 
kingdom, root and branch ; and which was suddenly, wonderfully, and 
divinely detected, at the very moment when the ruin was impending, 
on the 5th day of November, in the year of grace 1605. William 
Waad, whom the King has appointed his Lieutenant of the Tower, 
returns on the ninth of October, in the sixth year of the reign of James 
the First, 1608, his great and everlasting thanks." 

This is the room where Pepys (Feb. 28, 1663-4) "did go 
to dine with Sir J. Robinson, his ordinary table being very 
good, and his lady a very high-carriaged, but comely-big 
woman." James, Duke of Monmouth, taken as a fugitive 
from Sedgemoor, was imprisoned m the Lieutenant's 
lodgings (1685) till his execution. 



400 WALKS IN LONDON. 

We now reach the Bell Tower, so called from being sur- 
mounted by a wooden turret, containing the alarm bell of 
the garrison. At the entrance of the upper room from the 
walk upon the wall is the inscription — 

" Bi . tortvre . stravnge . my . trovth . was . tried . yet . of . my . 
lybertie . denied : ther . for . reson . hath . me . perswaded . that . 
pasyens . mvst . be . ymbrasyd : thogh . hard . fortvne . chasyth . me . 
wyth . smart . yet . pasyens . shall . prevayl." 

The curious vaulted chamber of the Bell Tower is that 
where John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, was imprisoned in 
his eightieth year. He was condemned for treason because 
he believed in the prophecies of the Maid of Kent, who 
said that a judgment would follow Henry VHI.'s divorce of 
Katherine of Aragon. " You beheve the prophecies," said 
Cromwell, " because you wish them to be true." From the 
Bell Tower he wrote piteously to Cromwell, " I beseech 
you to be good master in my necessity ; for I have neither 
shirt, nor suit, nor yet other clothes that are necessary for 
me to wear, but that be ragged and rent too shamefully. 
Notwithstanding, I might easily suffer that, if I could keep 
my body warm. But my diet also, God knoweth how 
slender it is at many times. And now in mine age, my 
stomach may not away but with a few kinds of meats, which, 
if I want, I decay forthwith." While Fisher was in prison 
the Pope, to comfort him, sent him a cardinal's hat. " Fore 
God," said the king, " if he wear it he shall wear it on his 
shoulders," and his death-warrant was signed, so that "his 
cardinal's hat and his head never met together."* The old 
man put on his best suit for what he called his marriage 
day, and went forth gladly to the scaffold, with his New 

• Fuller. 



THE BELL TOWER. 401 

Testament in his hand. It opened at the passage, "This 
is Hfe eternal, to know thee, the only true God, and Jesus 
Christ, whom thou hast sent." 

The Bell Tower is said to have been also the prison of 
the Princess Elizabeth, but it is more probable that she 
was confined in the royal apartments. It is certain that 
after a month's strict confinement she was allowed to walk 
in the Queen's Garden. Arabella Stuart, however, who 
had married Sir William Seymour, " with the love which 
laughs at privy councils," * certainly languished here for four 
years after her capture in Calais roads while attempting to 
escape with her husband to France. 

*' What passed in that dreadful imprisonment cannot perhaps be 
recovered for authentic history ; but enough is known ; that her mind 
grew impaired, that she finally lost her reason, and if the duration of 
her imprisonment (four years) was short, it was only terminated by her 
death. Some loose effusions, often begun and never ended, written 
and erased, incoherent and rational, yet remain in the fragments of her 
papers. In a letter she proposed addressing to Viscount Fenton, to 
implore for her his majesty's favour again, she says, * Good my lord, 
consider the fault cannot be uncommitted ; neither can any more be 
required of any earthly creature but confession and most humble sub- 
mission.' In a paragraph she had written, but crossed out, it seems 
that a present of her work had been refused by the King, and that she 
had no one about her whom she might trust." — D^ Israeli. Curiosities 
of Literature. 

** Where London's towres theire turrets show 
So stately by the Thames's side, 
Faire Arabella, childe of woe ! 

For many a day had sat and sighed. 
And as shee heard the waves arise. 

And as shee heard the bleak windes roare, 
So faste did heave her heartfelte sighes, 
And still so faste her teares did poure." 
From Evanses Old Ballads (^probably by Mickle), 

* D'lsraeli. 
VOL. I. D D 



402 



WALKS IN LONDON. 



Adjoining the Bell Tower is a room with an ancient 
chimney-piece inscribed — " Upon the twentieth daie of June 
in yere of our Lord a thousand five hundred three score and 
five, was the Right honorable " countes of Lennox Grace 
committede prysoner to thys lodgynge for the marreage of 
her Sonne my Lord Henry Darnle and the Queen of Scot- 
land, Here is their names that do wayte upon her noble 
Grace in thys plase — M. Elizh. Hussey, M. Jane Baily, M. 
Elizh. Chamberlen, M. Robarte Partington, Edward Cuffin, 
Anno Domini 1566." This is a memorial of Margaret, 
Countess of Lennox, first cousin of Queen Elizabeth, being 
the daughter of Margaret, Queen of Scotland, by her second 
marriage with the Earl of Angus. She was imprisoned on 
the marriage, and released on the murder, of Damley. She 
died in great poverty (leaving two grandchildren, James IV., 
son of Henry, and Arabella, daughter of Charles Stuart), 
and was buried in state at Westminster at the expense of 
Elizabeth. 

In the centre of the west side of the court is the Beau- 
champ Tower, which probably derived its name from Thomas 
de Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, having been imprisoned 
there by Richard II. before his removal to the Isle of Man, 
in 1397. The room on the upper story of this tower is one 
of the most interesting in the fortress. It is surrounded by 
a number of arched embrasures, and the walls are half 
covered with inscriptions from the hands of its prisoners, 
which will be found of the greatest interest by those who 
see them on the spot, though a description of them here 
is dull reading. We may notice — 

Right of First Recess. In old Italian.—" Dispoi : che : vole : la : 
fortvna : che : la : mea : speransa : va : al : vento : pi anger : ho : 



THE BEAUCHAMP TOWER, 403 

volio : el ; tempo : perdvto : e : semper : stel : me : tristo : e : discon- 
teto : Wilim : Tyrrel . 1541." 

Over the Fireplace. The autograph of Philip Howard, Earl of 
Arundel, eldest son of Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk, beheaded 
1572, for the sake of Mary, Queen of Scots. " Quanto plus afflictionis 
pro Christo in hoc saeculo, tanto plus glorias cum Christo in futuro. 
Arundell. June 22, 1587. 

" Gloria et honore eum coronasti Domine. 
In memoria etema erit Justus." 

Lord Arundel, having embraced the Catholic faith, had wished to 
emigrate, but was seized, and imprisoned on an accusation of unlaw- 
'fully supporting Catholic priests. The joy he expressed on hearing of 
the Spanish Armada causeu his being tried in Westminster Hall and 
condemned to death, but he was reprieved and languished all his life 
in prison, Elizabeth vainly offered his restoration to liberty, riches, 
and honour, if he would renounce his faith. He died Oct. 19, 1595, 
thus, though not without suspicion of poison, escaping the capital 
punishment inflicted upon his father, grandfather, and great grand- 
father. 

Right of Fireplace. Sculpture by John Dudley, Earl of "Warwick ; 
eldest son of John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, imprisoned for 
the cause of Lady Jane Grey, who had married his brother Lord Guild- 
ford Dudley. Beneath the Uon, bear, and ragged staff, is the sculptor's 
name, and a border of roses (for Ambrose), oak leaves (for Robert), and 
two other flowers, the whole being emblematical of the names of his 
four brothers, imprisoned with him, as we see by the inscription — 

" Yow that these beasts do wel behold and se. 
May deme with ease wherefore here made they be, 

With borders eke wherein 

4 brothers names who list to serche the ground." 

Of the five brothers, John died in prison, Guildford was beheaded, the 
other three were released after six months' imprisonment. 

Recess on Right of Fireplace. The inscription "Dolor patientia 
vincitur. G. Gyfford. August 8, 1586," and another, are probably by 
George Gyfford, gentleman pensioner to EHzabeth, falsely accused of 
having sworn to kill the queen. 

On the left side of the same recess is a panel adorned with lozenges, 
inscribed— 

«J. H. S. 
157 1 . die io<i Aprili*. 



404 WALKS IN LONDON. 

" Wise men ought circumspectly to se what they do ; to examine 
before they speake ; to prove before they take in hand ; to beware 
whose company they use ; and, above all things, to whom they trust. 
Charles Bailly." 

The writer was a secret agent for Mary, Queen of Scots, arrested at 
Dover with letters in cipher for her, the Duke of Norfolk, and her other 
adherents, and harshly imprisoned and tortured on the rack to obtain 
additional disclosures. Amongst Lord Burghley's State Papers there 
is a touching letter from him to that statesman — " For God's sake, and 
for the passion which he suffered for us, take pitie of me ; and bend 
your mercy full eyes towards me, Charles Bailly, a poore prisoner and 
stranger . . . who have no frend at all to help me with a penny, and 
am alheady naked and torne." 

Another inscription by the same hand is — 

" Principium sapientie timor Domini. I.H.S. X.P.S. Be frend to 
one. Be ennemye to none. Anno D. 1571. 10 Sept. The most 
unhappy man in the world is he that is not patient in adversities ; For 
men are not killed with the adversities they have : but with ye impa- 
cience which they suffer. 

" Tout vient apoient, quy peult attendre. Gli sospiri ne son 
testimoni veri deU' angoscia mia. set. 29. Charles Bailly." 

A third inscription by the same has simply the name and the date, 

1571- 

Close to this is—" 1570. Jhon Store. Doctor." This Store or 
Story was a member of the House of Commons, who was committed 
on the accession of Elizabeth, for the vehemence with which he spoke 
against the Reformation, but escaped to Antwerp. He was, however, 
ensnared on board an English ship, cairied back to the Tower, and 
condemned and cruelly executed for the Roman Catholic faith, with 
tortures even more barbarous than those used against Protestants. He 
was drawn on a hurdle to Tyburn, hung, cut down while still alive, and 
struggled with the executioner while he was being disembowelled ! 

Passing over inscriptions by persons of whom nothing is known, we 
find— 

Third Recess — 

{Left side.) "T. C. I leve in hope and I gave credit to mi frinde in 
time did stande me most in hande. So wovlde I never do againe, 
excepte I hade hime suer in bande ; and to al men wishe I so, unles ye 
sussteine the leke lose as I do. 

" Unhappie is that mane whose actes doth procuer 
The miseri of this hous in prison to induer. 

1576. Thomas Clarke.*' 



THE BEAUCHAMP TOWER, 405 

{Right side.) 

** Hit is the poynt of a wyse man to try and then trvste. 
For hapy is he who fyndeth one that is jvste. 

T. C." 

These are believed to be by Thomas Clarke, a Roman Catholic 
priest who recanted at St. Paul's Cross, July i, 1593. 
Below the first of these are the lines, by a sufferer on the rack — 

** Thomas Miagh which liethe here alone 
That fayne wold from hens begon 
By tortvre stravnge mi trovth was 
Tryed yet of my libertie denied 

1581. Thomas Myagh." 

Between the last two Recesses are, amongst many other inscriptions, 
ander the name Thomas Rooper, 1570, the figure of a skeleton, and the 
words, "Per passage penible passons a port plaisant." 

Near this is " Geffiye Poole, 1562." Doubtless inscribed by that 
descendant of George, Duke of Clarence, who was imprisoned in the 
Tower for life, and on whose evidence his own brother, Lord Mon- 
tague, with the Marquis of Exeter and others, were beheaded. 

Near this is the word JANE, supposed to refer to Lady Jane Grey 
and to have beaai cut by her husband, Lord Guildford Dudley, impri- 
soned here with his brothers. 

Near this also is "Edmonde Poole," which is several times repeated 
in the room, commemorating one of the great-grandsons of George, 
Duke of Clarence, imprisoned here for life on accusation of wishing to 
supplant the Protestant religion and make Mary of Scotland queen of 
England. His brother Arthur Pole has left his inscriptions — " Deo. 
servire . penitentiam . inire . fato . obedire . regnare . est. A. Poole. 1564. 
I. H. S." and " I. H. S. A passage perillus maketh a port pleasant. 
Ao. 1568. Arthur Poole, ^t. sue 37. A.P." 

Last Recess {left). " I hope in th' end to deserve that I would have. 
Men: Novem : Ao. 1573," with the name "Hugh Longworthe " 
underneath and the prostrate figure of a man. This is especially 
curious as probably having been the work of one Peter Burchet of the 
Middle Temple, who being imprisoned here for wounding Sir John 
Hawlcins, murdered (to " deserve " his punishment }) his fellow-prisoner 
Hugh Longworth, as he was reading his Bible in this window. Burchet 
was hung by Temple Bar, Nov. ii, 1573. 

After the last Recess. "AS : VT : IS : TAKY . Thomas Fitz- 
gerald," commemorates the eldest son of Gerald Fitzgerald, ninth Earl 



406 WALKS IN LONDON, 

of Kildare, imprisoned for a rebellion in Ireland, and hung and quar- 
tered at Tyburn, with his five uncles, Feb. 3, 1537. 

Left of the {original) east window. Under the word "Thomas'* is 
a great A upon a bell, being the rebus of Dr, Thomas Abel, domestic 
chaplain to Queen Catherine of Arragon, imprisoned and executed for 
his fidehty to the cause of his mistress. 

Near this is " Doctor Cook," the signature of Laurence Cook, Prior 
of Doncaster, hung for denying the king's supremacy, and " Thomas 
Cobham, 1555," commemorating the youngest son of Lord Cobham, 
who was condemned for Sir Thomas Wyatt's insurrection. 

The last inscription we need notice is a carving of an oak-tree with 
acorns and the initials "R. D." beneath, the work of Robert Dudley, 
afterwards Queen Elizabeth's Earl of Leicester, who, being aheady 
married to Amy Robsart, was imprisoned with his father and brothers 
for the affair of Lady Jane Grey. 

An illustrious prisoner of the Beau champ Tower, who has 
left no memorials, is Sir John Oldcastle, Lord Cobham, who 
was sentenced to be burnt to death for the doctrines of 
Wickliffe. The people broke into the Tower and rescued 
him, and he remained under their protection in safety for 
three months. After this, being forced to fly, he wandered 
for four years through England and Wales, with 1,000 marks 
set upon his head. At length he was betrayed by a Welsh 
follower, brought to London, and burnt before his own 
house in Smithfield. 

On the wall at the top of this tower was tlie touching 
" Epitaph on a Goldfinch " — 

*• Where Raleigh pin'd, within a prison's gloom, 
I cheerful sung, nor murmur'd at my doom ; 
Where heroes bold, and patriots firm could dv/all, 
A goldfinch in content his note might swell : 
But death, more gentle than the law's decree, 
Ilath paid my ransom from captivity. 

Buried, Jime 23, 1 794, by a fellow- 
-prisoner in the Tower of London." 



THE TOWER GREEN. 407 

Almost opposite the Beauchamp Tower is " the Green 
within the Tower " (now a gravelled space, where it is said 
that grass has never consented to grow since the executions) 
whither Hastings (1483) was brought hastily from the 
council chamber in the White Tower, and where, " without 
time for confession or repentance, his head was struck off 
upon a log of timber." 

A stone here marks the spot on which several of the most 
illustrious of the Tower- victims have suffered death, the greater 
part of the prisoners having been executed on Tower Hill. 
Here the beautiful Anne Boleyn walked to her death in the 
calm of innocence, comforting her attendants, and pray- 
ing with her last breath for her brutal husband. Here the 
aged Countess of Salisbury, the last hneal descendant of 
the Plantagenets, refused to lay her head upon the block, 
and rushed round and round the platform, her white hair 
streaming on the wind, till she was hewn down by the 
executioner. Here a letter from an eye-witness describes 
the death of Queen Catherine Howard (who had been a 
wife only one year six months and four days) and Lady 
Rochford as " the most godly and Christian end that ever 
was heard tell of since the world's creation." Hither Lady 
Jane Grey, " the queen of nine days," came to her death 
" without fear or grief," attended by her faithful women, 
Mistress Tylney and Mistress Ellen. 

" These are the words that the Lady Jane spake upon the scaffold at 
the hour of her death. First, when she mounted upon the scaffold, she 
said to the people standing thereabout, * Good people, I am come 
hither to die, and by a law I am condemned to the same. The fact 
against the queen's highness was unlawful, and the consenting there- 
unto by me : but touching the procurement and desire thereof by me 
or on my belialf, I do wash my hands thereof in innocency before God, 



4o8 WALKS IN LONDON, 

and the face of you, good Christian people, this day : " and therewith 
she wrung her hands, wherein she had her book. Then said she, * I 
pray you all, good Christian people, to bear me witness that I die a 
true Christian woman, and that I do look to be saved by no other 
mean, but only by the mercy of God, in the blood of his only son Jesus 
Christ : and I confess, that when I did know the word of God, I 
neglected the same, loved myself and the world ; and therefore this 
plague and punishment is happily and worthily happened unto me for 
my sins ; and yet I thank God, that of his goodness he hath thus given 
me a time and respite to repent. And now, good people, while I am 
ahve, I pray you assist me with your prayers.' And then, kneehng 
down, she turned her to Fecknam, saying, ' Shall I say this psalm } * 
and he said ' Yea.' Then said she the psalm of ' Miserere mei Deus* 
in English, in most devout manner, throughout to the end ; and then 
she stood up, and gave her maiden. Mistress Ellen, her gloves and 
handkerchief, and her book to Master Burges. And then she untied 
her gown, and the hangman pressed upon her to help her off with it ; 
but she, desiring him to let her alone, turned towards her two gentle- 
women, who helped her off therewith, and also with her frowes, paaft 
and neckerchief, giving to her a fair handkerchief to bind about her 
eyes. 

" Then the hangman kneeled down and asked her forgiveness, whom 
she forgave most willingly. Then he willed her to stand upon the 
straw ; which doing, she saw the block. Then she said, ' I pray you 
decapitate me quickly.' Then she kneeled down, saying, ' Will you 
take it off, before I lay me down .'* ' And the hangman said, * No, 
Madam.' Then tied she the handkerchief about her eyes, and feeling 
for the block, she said, ' What shall I do ? Where is it ? Where is 
it ? ' One of the standers-by guiding her thereunto she laid her head 
down upon the block, and then stretched forth her body, and said, 
' Lord, into thy hands I commend my spirit ; " and so finished her life 
in the year of our Lord God, 1554, the 12th day of February." — lujxe. 
Acts and Monument';. 

Lady Jane had " the innocency of childhood, the beauty of youth, 
the solidity of the middle, the gravity of old age, and all at eighteen ; 
the birth of a princess, the learning of a clerk, the life of a saint, 
yet the death of a malefactor for her parent's oflFences." — Holy State, 
p. 311. 

On this same spot, in 1598, suffered Henry Devereux, 

Queen Elizabeth's Earl of Essex, having obtained his last 
petition, that his execution might be in private, and coming 



ST. PETER'S CHAPEL. 409 

to his death " more like a bridegroom than a prisoner 
appointed for death." 

Close by, on the left (having observed the inscription 
" Nisi Dominus Frustra " over the chaplain's door), we may 
enter the Prisoner's Chapel, aptly dedicated to St. Peter in 
the Chains, built by Edward I., rebuilt by Edward III., but 
altered with perpendicular windows and arches in the reign 
of Henry VIII., and restored under Salvin, 1876-7. The 
chapel has always been used for the prisoners of the Tower, 
and it was here that the seven bishops imprisoned for 
conscience sake, being allowed to attend service, were con- 
soled by the accident of the Lesson being from 2 Cor. vi. 3, 4 
— " Giving no offence in anything, that the ministry be not 
blamed : but in all things approving ourselves as the 
ministers of God, in much patience, in afflictions, in neces- 
sities, in distresses, in stripes, in imprisonments," &c. 

The chapel contains several interesting monuments. At 
the N.E. corner of the north aisle is the noble alabaster 
tomb (originally in front of the chancel) of Sir Richard 
Cholmondeley, Lieutenant of the Tower under Henr}'- VII. 
{ob. 1544), and his wife Elizabeth. His effigy is in plate 
armour with a collar of SS., his head rests on a helmet, his 
feet on a lion : his wife, who lies on her left side, has a 
pointed headdress : both the statues were once coloured 
and gilt. The north wall of the chancel is occupied by the 
tomb of Sir Richard Blount (1560) and Sir Michael Blount, 
his son (1592), both Lieutenants of the Tower. On the 
south wall of the chancel are some quaint monuments to the 
Carey family and the black marble tablet to Sir Allan 
Apsley (father of Mrs. Hutchinson), 1630. Other monu- 
ments commemorate Valentine Pyne (1677), Master Gunner 



4IO WALKS IN LONDON. 

of England ; Sir Jonas More (1670), Surveyor-General of 
the Ordnance under Charles II. ; and Talbot Edwards 
(1674), the venerable Keeper of the Regalia at the time of 
the Blood conspiracy. On the east wall of the chancel are 
brass tablets to Sir John Fox Burgoyne, Constable of the 
Tower, 1870; and Lord de Ros, Deputy Lieutenant of the 
Tower, 1874. 

But no monuments mark the graves of the most illustrious 
of the victims of the Tower, whose bones lie beneath the 
pavement. When it was taken up in 1876 some bones of a 
female of 25 or 30 years old were found before the altar at 
two feet below the ground, and have been almost conclu- 
sively identified as those of Queen Anne Boleyn, whose 
body, says Burnet, was, immediately after her execution, 
" thrown into a common chest of elm-tree, that was made to 
put arrows in, and buried in the chapel within the Tower 
before twelve o'clock." Stow describes how immediately 
before the altar lie ** two Dukes between two Queens" — 
the Protector Somerset (1552) and Lady Jane Grey's Duke 
of Northumberland between Anne Boleyn and Katherine 
Howard. Of the girlish Queen Katharine no bones have 
been found, but some male bones with a skull have been 
identified as those of the Duke of Northumberland, whose 
head was buried with him. The Duke of Monmouth, the 
unfortunate son of Charles II., was buried beneath the altar, 
where his bones exist still. On the left of Anne Boleyn 
(north of chancel) lies her brother, Lord Rochford ; to the 
right of Katherine Howard (south) were her friend Lady 
Rochford, and the venerable Countess of Salisbury, whose 
bones have been identified. Behind the Queens lie Lord 
Guildford Dudley, Lady Jane Grey, the Duke of Suffolk, 



ST PETER'S CHAPEL, 411 

Duke of Norfolk, Earl of Arundel, Earl of Essex, and Sir 
Thomas Overbury. 

Under a stone at the west end of the chapel rest Kilmar- 
nock, Balmerino, and Lovat. Their coffin-plates are pre- 
served in the vestry, inscribed — 

"Willielmus, Comes de Kilmarnock, Decollatus i8*J die Augusti, 
1746. ^tatis suae 42*'." 

"Arthurus, Dominus de Balmerino, Decollatus 18". die Augusti, 
1746. ^tatis suae 580." 

" Simon, Dominus Frazer de Lovat, DecoUat. April 9, 1747. 
^tat. suae 80." (The inscription upon which Lord Lovat looked 
upon the scaffold and uttered " Dulce et decorum pro patria mori.") 

To the north of this. Bishop Fisher was removed from 
Allhallows, Barking, that he might lie near his friend Sir 
Thomas More. Prisoners buried in the chapel were — 

Gerald Fitzgerald, Earl of Kildare, died in prison, 1534. 
John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, beheaded, 1535. 
Sir Thomas More, beheaded, 1535. 
George Boleyn, Viscount Rochford, beheaded, 1536. 
Queen Anne Boleyn, beheaded, 1536. 
Thomas Cromwell, Earl of Essex, beheaded, 1540. 
Margaret Clarence, Countess of Salisbury, beheaded, 1541. 
Queen Catherine Howard, beheaded, 1542. 
Jane, Viscountess Rochford, beheaded, 1542. 
Thomas, Lord Seymour of Sudeley, beheaded, 1549. 
Edward Seymour, Duke of Somerset, beheaded, 1551. 
Sir Ralph Vane, hanged, 1552. 
Sir Thomas Arundel, beheaded, 1552. 
John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, beheaded, 1553. 
Lord Guildford Dudley, beheaded, 1554. 
Lady Jane Grey, beheaded, 1554. 
Henry Grey, Duke of Suffolk, beheaded, 1554. 
Arthur and Edmund Pole, grandsons of the Countess of Salisburyi 
died in the Tower between 1565 and 1578. 

Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk, beheaded, 1572. 
Sir John Perrott, died in the Tower, 1592. 
Philip, Earl of Arundel, died in the Tower, 1595. 



412 WALKS IN LONDON, .' 

Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex, beheaded, i6oi. 

Sir Thomas Overbury, "Prisoner, poysoned," is the entry in the 
register, 1613. 

Thomas, Lord Grey of Wilton, died in the Tower, 16 14. 

Sir John Eliot, died in the Tower, 1632. 

William, Viscount Stafford, beheaded, 1680. 

Arthur, Earl of Essex, " cutt his own throat within the Tower," says 
the register, 1683. 

James, Duke of Monmouth, beheaded, 1685. 

George, Lord Jeffreys, died in the Tower, 1689 (his bones were 
removed in 1693). 

John Rotier, died in the Tower, 1703. 

Edward, Lord Griffin, died in the Tower, 17 10. 

William, Marquis of Tullibardine, died in the Tower, 1746. 

Arthur, Lord Balmerino, beheaded, 1746. 

Wniiam, Earl of Kilmarnock, beheaded, 1746. 

Simon, Earl Frazer of Lovat, beheaded, 1747.* 

Behind St. Peter's Chapel, at the north-west angle of the 
wall, is the Devereux Tower, called in the survey of 
Henry VIII. " Robin the Devyll's Tower," and in that of 
1597 "the Develin Tower," but which changed its name 
after the Earl of Essex was confined there in 1601. 

Passing the Flint Tower (rebuilt) we reach the Bowyer^s 
Tower, so called from having been the residence of the 
provider of the king's bows. The only ancient part is a 
vaulted chamber on the ground floor, in which, according to 
tradition, George, Duke of Clarence, brother of Edward IV., 
was drowned in a butt of Malmsey wine. 

Next, behind the barracks, is the Brick Tower, where the 
Master of the Ordnance resided. Here Lady Jane Grey 
was imprisoned. Hence she wrote her last touching words 
10 her father, and those to her sister Katherine, Lady Herbert, 
on the blank leaves of her Greek Testament. From the 

* For further particulars consult the interesting volume on the Chapel in the 
Tower by Doyne C. Bell. 



THE MARTIN TOWER. 413 

window of this tower also, before she was herself taken to 

the scaffold, she beheld the headless body of her husband 

pass by in a cart from Tower Hill, and exclaimed, "Oh, 

Guildford, Guildford ! fhe ante-past is not so bitter that thou 

hast tasted, and which I shall soon taste, as to make my flesh 

tremble ; it is nothing compared with that feast of which we 

shall partake this day in heaven." 

" She had before received the offer of a crown with as even a temper 
as if it had been a garland of flowers, and now she lays aside the 
thought thereof with as much contentedness as she could have thrown 
away that garland when the scent was gone. The time of her glories 
was so short, but a nine days' work, that it seemed nothing but a 
dream, out of which she was not sorry to be awakened." — Heylin, 

In this tower Sir Walter Raleigh underwent his first 
imprisonment (by Elizabeth) for having seduced Elizabeth 
Throckmorton, one of the maids of honour, but was released 
on his marriage with her. Hither also, after his expedition 
to Gaiana, he was brought for his third and last imprison- 
ment. 

The Martin Tower ^ at the north-east angle, was the prison 
for sixteen years of the Earl of Northumberland in the reign 
of James I. He was allowed to walk on the terrace between 
this and the Constable Tower, and to pursue his mathe- 
matical studies, under the guidance of Hariot, the astronomer. 
A sundial, still existing on the south face of the tower, was 
put up by the earl, and is the work of Hariot. Northumber- 
land was eventually released on the intercession of his 
beautiful daughter, Lucy Hay, Countess of Carlisle. It 
was here also that the Seven Bishops were imprisoned. As 
the "Jewel Tower," this was the scene of Blood's con- 
spiracy. This tower also was the scene of the well-known 
but disconnected " Tower-Ghost-Story." Mr. Edward Lent- 



414 WALKS IN LONDON. 

hall Swift, Keeper of the Crown JcAvels, stated that on a 
Saturday night in October, 1817, he was at supper with his 
wife, her sister, and his little boy, in the sitting-room of the 
jewel-house. The room had three doors and two windows : 
between the windows a chimney-piece projected far into 
the room. On that evening the doors were closed, the 
windows curtained, and the only light was given by the 
candles on the table. Mr. Swift sate at the foot of the 
table, with his boy on his right, his wife facing the chimney, 
and her sister opposite. Suddenly the lady exclaimed, 
*' Good God ! what is that ? " Mr. Swift then saw a cylin- 
drical figure, like a glass tube, seemingly about the thick- 
ness of his arm, hovering between the ceiling and the 
table. Its contents appeared to be a dense fluid, white 
and pale azure, incessantly rolling within the cylinder. 
This lasted two minutes, after which the appearance began 
to move round the table. Mr. Swift saw it pass behind 
his wife, who shrieked in an agony of terror, " Oh Christ ! 
it has seized me ! " Neither the sister nor the boy saw 
anything. Soon afterwards the sentry at the jewel-house 
was terrified by " a figure like a bear," fell down in a fit, 
and died two or three days after.* 

At the foot of this tower is preserved the sculpture of the 
royal arms, by Gibbons, which was the principal ornament 
on the front of the Great Storehouse, burnt October 30th, 
1841. 

On the east wall (modernised) are the Constable Tower, 
and the Broad Arrow Tower, which was used as a prison 
for Roman Catholic priests in the reign of EHzabeth. 

* See Tirabs's " Romance of London," vol. ii. The other ghostly appearance 
in the Tower, the axe, which appears in the shadow of moonlight on the walls ai 
the White Tower, has had many advocates. 



THE DUKE OF SUFFOLK'S HEAD. 415 

At the south-east angle is the picturesque Salt (Assault) 
Tower, with some good gothic windows. The ground floor 
is a vaulted chamber, with deep recesses. The upper floor, 
used as a prison, has some curious sculptures, a sphere with 
the signs of the zodiac, the work of a man imprisoned on 
accusation of sorcery, with the inscription, " Hew Draper 
of Brystow made thys spheer the 30 daye of Maye anno 
1 56 1." In another part of the room is a globe, probably 
by the same person. The name " Mychael Moody, May 
15. 1587," is that of one imprisoned for conspiring against 
the life of Elizabeth. 

The Royal Palace of the Tower occupied the ground 
between the Salt Tower and the Lanthorn Tower, one of 
the most ancient parts of the fortress, destroyed in 1788. 
Its site is now occupied by the hideous Ordnance Office. 
The Tower ceased to be used as a palace after the acces- 
sion of Elizabeth, to whom it recalled the personal associa- 
tions of a prison. 

Returning through the Outer Ward, by the remains (left) 
of the Cradle Tower, we have one of the most charming 
views in the fortress, where some trees overshadow the 
archway, which crosess the ward close to the Wakefield 
Tower. 

A visit to the Tower may be well followed by one to the 
Church of Holy Trinity, in the Minories, the long street 
which runs north from Tower Hill to Aldgate, for here, in a 
tin box, is preserved the most ghastly relic connected with 
the Tower. It is the still perfect Head of the Duke of 
Suffolk, father of Lady Jane Grey, which was found pre- 
served in tannin in a small vault on the south of the altar, 
and which, in its aquiline nose and arched eyebrows, 



4i6 WALKS IN LONDON. 

corresponds with the portrait engraved by Lodge from a 
portrait at Hatfield, of which there is a duplicate in the 
National Portrait Gallery. The features are perfect, but 
the hair is gone, the skin has become a bright yellow, the 
cheeks and eyelids are like leather, the teeth rattle in the 
jaws. The neck shows the false blow of the executioner, 
which failed to extinguish life, and the fatal blow which cut 
through veins and cartilage, severing the head from the body. 
The church contains several curious monuments, including 
that of William Legge, who attended Charles I. upon the 
scaffold, and bore thence his message to the Prince of 
Wales " to remember the faithfullest servant ever prince 
had." In the same grave rests his son George, first 
Baron Dartmouth, Counsellor to Charles II. and James 
II., and Master of the Horse to James II. He was 
appointed Admiral of the fleet intended to intercept the 
landing of the Prince of Orange, and, failing, was sent, after 
the revolution, to the Tower, where he died in 169 1. His 
son, William, first Earl of Dartmouth, is also buried here. 
The monument erected by Lady Pelham, daughter of a 
St. John of Bletsoe, to her husband and son has the 
epitaph — 

" Deathe first did strike Sir John, here tomb'd in claye, 

And then enforst his son to follow faste ; 
Of Pelham's line, this kniyghte was chiefe and stay, 

By this, behold ! all flesh must dye at laste. 
But Bletsowe's lord, thy sister most may moane, 
Both mate and sonne hathe left her here alone. 

Sir John Pelham dyed October 13. 1580. 
Oliver Pelham, his sonne, dyed January 19. 1584.** 

Here Sir Philip Sidney, who received his death-wound at 
Zutphen, lay in state before his national funeral in St. Paul's. 



THE TRINITY HOUSE. 417 

" Unto the Minories his body was conveyed, 
And there, under a martial hearse, three months or more was laid ; 
But when the day was come he to his grave must go, 
A host ol heavy men repaired to see the solemn show." 

This dismal little church is the only memorial of the 
convent founded for Minorites, "Poor Clares," who gave 
a name to the street, by Blanche, Queen of Navarre, wife 
of Edmond Plantagenet, Earl of Lancaster, second son of 
Henry III. It was probably on account of this foundation 
by his sister-in-law, that Edward I. deposited here the heart 
of his mother, the unpopular Eleanor of Provence, who died 
in the nunnery of Ambresbury in 1291. The Minorite 
Convent was granted to the Duke of Suffolk by Edward VI., 
in 1552. The Convent-farm was leased to one Goodman, 
from whom " Goodman's Fields," " Goodman's Stile," and 
" Goodman's Yard " take their names. 

•* At the which farm I myself in my youth have fetched many a half- 
pennyworth of milk, and never had less than three ale-pints for a 
half-penny in the summer, nor less than one ale-quart for a hah'-penny 
in the winter, and always hot from the kine, as the same was milked 
and obtained." — Stow. 

It was in the Minories that Lord Cobham died, at the 
house of his laundress, " rather of hunger than any natural 
disease."* The street was formerly famous for its gun- 
smiths — 

" The mulcibers who in the Minories sweat, 
And massive bars on stubborn anvils beat, 
Deform themselves, yet forge those stays of steel, 
Which arm Amelia with a shape to kill." 

Congreve, 

On Tower Hill, facing a garden on the north of the Tow^r, 
is the Trinity House, built by Samuel Wyatt for the company 

• Works of Francis Osbom, ed. 1701, p. 381. 
VOL. I. £ £ 



4i8 WALKS IN LONDON. 

founded by Sir Thomas Spert, Comptroller of the Navy to 
Henry VIII., for the encouragement of navigation, the 
regulation of lighthouses, the providing of efficient pilots, 
and the general control of naval matters not directly under 
the Admiralty. 

A little farther east is the Jioyal Mint, built by Johnson and 
Sir R. Smirke. Here the gold and silver of the realm are 
melted and coined. Sir Isaac Newton and Sir John Herschel 
were Masters of the Mint, an office abolished in 1870. 

The streets east of the Tower are the Sailors' Town. The 
shops are devoted to the sale of sailors' clothing, nautical 
instruments, and naval stores ; the population is made up 
of sailors, shipbuilders, and fishermen. 

The Docks connected with the Thames occupy a space of 

900 acres. The principal Docks are St. Katheriiies Docks, 

opened 18283 the London Docks, opened 1805; the West 

India Docks, opened 1802 ; the East India Docks, opened 

1 808; the Commercial Docks, opened 1809; and the Victoria 

Docks y opened 1856. 

" Lords of the world's great waste, the ocean, we 
Whole forests send to reign upon the sea." — Waller. 

Near St. Katherine's, a place which latterly bore the 
strangely corrupted name of Hangman's Gains, long marked 
the street which was the asylum of the refugees from 
Hammes et Guynes, near Calais, after that town was 
recaptured from the English ! 

Below the London Docks is Wapping, where Lord 
Chancellor Jeffreys, attempting to escape after the abdica- 
tion of James II., was taken while he was drinking at the 
Red Cow, in Hope and Anchor Alley, King Edward's 
Stairs ; he was identified by a scrivener of Wapping, whom 



RATCLIFFE HIGHWAY. 419 

he had insulted from the bench, and who recognised the 
terrible face as he was lolling out of a window, in the dress 
of a common sailor, and in fancied security. Execution 
Dock is the place where pirates were hung in chains. 
Beyond Wapping are the miserable thickly inhabited 
districts of Shadwell and Limehouse. 

At Wapping is the entrance of the Thames Tunnel, formed 
1825 — 1843, by Sir Isambard K. Brunei, at an expense of 
;^6 14,000. This long useless passage under the river, 
to Rotherhithe, was -sold to the East London Railway 
Company in 1865, and is now a railway tunnel. 

A number of taverns with riverside landing-places retain 
their quaint original names, but they are little worth 
visiting. The " Waterman's Arms " in Limehouse has 
some remains (1877) of an old brick front towards the street, 
and the view from its river balcony, with the ancient boat- 
building yards, and timbers green with salt weeds in the 
foreground, has often been painted. 

The main thoroughfare of this part of London, which 
will always be known by its old name of RatcUfie Highway^ 
though it has been foolislily changed to St. George's Street, 
obtained unpleasant notoriety from the murders of the 
Marr family and the Williamsons in 181 1, after which, as 
Macaulay says, " Many can remember the terror which 
was on every face, the careful barring of doors, the pro- 
viding of blunderbusses and watchmen's rattles." But 
those who visit it now will find Ratcliffe Highway a cheerful 
airy street, without any especial evidence of poverty or 
crime. No. 179 is the famous "Wild Beast Shop," called 
Jamrach's, an extraordinary place, where almost any animal 
may be purchased, from an elephant to a mouse. 



CHAPTER XI. 
THAMES STREET. 

WE may return from the Tower by the long thorough- 
fare of Upper and Lower Thames Street, which follows 
the line of the river, with a history as old as that of the 
City itself. Narrow and dark, Industry has made it one 
of the most important streets of London. Here — 

" Commerce brought into the public walk 
'^ The busy merchant ; the big warehouse built ; 

Rais'd the strong crane ; choak'd up the loaded street 
With foreign plenty ; and thy stream, O Thames, 
Large, gentle, deep, majestic. King of Floods ! 
Chose for his grand resort." 

Thomson, 

Thames Street is the very centre of turmoil. From 
the huge warehouses along the sides, with their chasm- 
like windows and the enormous cranes which are so great 
a feature of this part of the City, the rattling of the chains 
and the creaking of the cords, by which enormous packages 
are constantly ascending and descending, mingles with 
uproar from the roadway beneath. Here the hugest 
waggons, drawn by Titanic dray-horses, and attended by 
waggoners in smockfrocks, are always lading or discharging 
their enormous burthens of boxes, barrels, crates, timber, 



THE CUSTOM HOUSE. 421 

iron, or cork. Wine, fish, and cheese are the chief articles 
of street traffic — 

** Thames Street gives cheeses, Covent Garden fruits, 
Moorfields old books, and Monmouth Street old svits." 

There are no buildings which recall the days of Chaucer, 
who, the son of a Thames Street vintner, certainly lived 
here from 1379 to 1385, but now and then an old brick 
church breaks the line of warehouses, with the round-headed 
windows of Charles the Second's time and the stiff garlands 
of Gibbons, and ever and anon, through a narrow sHt in the 
houses, we have a glimpse of the glistening river and its 
shipping. But one cannot linger in Thames Street — every 
one is in a hurry. 

On the left is The Custom House, built from designs of 
David Laing, 18 14 — 17, but altered by Sir Robert Smirke. 
The most productive duties are those on tea, tobacco, 
wine, and brandy. 

" There is no Prince in Christendom but is directly a tradesman, 
though in another way than an ordinary tradesman. For the purpose, 
I have a man ; I bid him lay out twenty shillings in such and such 
commodities ; but I tell him for every shilling he lays out I will have 
a penny. I trade as well as he. This every Prince does in his 
Customs." — Selden. 

There is a delightful walk on the quay in front of the 
Custom House, with a beautiful view up the river to 
London Bridge. From hence the peculiarly picturesque 
boats called Dutch Crawls may be seen to the greatest 
advantage : they do not go higher than London Bridge. 
Hither, in one of his fits of despondency, came Cowper the 
poet, intendmg to drown himself. 



422 



WALKS IN LONDON. 



" Not knowing where to poison myself, I resolved upon drowning. 
For that purpose I took a coach, and ordered the man to drive to 
Tower-wharf, intending to throw myself into the river from the 
Custom-house quay. I left the coach upon the Tower-wharf, intending 
never to return to it ; but upon coming to the quay, I found the water 
low, and a porter seated upon some goods there, as if on purpose to 
prevent me. This passage to the bottomless pit being mercifully shut 
against me, I returned back to the coach." — Southefs Cowper, i. 124. 

Close to the Custom House is the famous fish-market of 
Billingsgate, rebuilt 1876, but picturesque and worth seeing, 




;.fl.ai//Ci<,fj 

London Bridge from Billingsgate. 



though ladies will not wish to linger there, the language of 
Billingsgate having long been notorious. 

" There stript, fair Rhetoric languish'd on the ground ; 
Her blunted arms by sophistry are borne, 
And shameless Billingsgate her robes adorn." 

Pope. The Dunciad. 



One may term Billingsgate the Esculine gate of London." 



Fuller. 



Geoffry of Monmouth says that the name Billingsgate was 
derived from Belin, king of the Britons, a.c. 400, having 



ST. DUNSTAN-INTHE-EAST, 433 

built a water-gate here, and that when he was dead his 
ashes were placed in a vessel of brass upon a high pinnacle 
of stone over the said gate. The place has been a market 
for fish ever since 1351 ; all fish is sold by the tale, except 
salmon, which is sold by weight, and oysters and shell-fish, 
which are sold by measure. A fish dinner (price 2s.) 
may be obtained at the Three Tuns Taverji at Billingsgate. 

Opposite Billingsgate is Th£ Coal Exchange^ by J. B. 
Bunning, opened 1849. Botolph Lane and Wharf com- 
memorate the Church of St, Botolph, Billingsgate, not 
rebuilt after the Fire. 

On St. Dunstan's Hill, between Tower Street and Little 
Thames Street, is the Church of St. Dunstan-in-the-East^ 
one of Wren's restorations. The spire rests on four flying 
buttresses, in feeble caricature of the grand steeple of St. 
Nicholas at Newcastle. It was Wren's first attempt at 
placing a steeple upon quadrangular columns, and was at 
first regarded by him with great anxiety. Afterwards he 
was very proud of this miserable work, and when told that 
a dreadful hurricane had ruined all the steeples in the City, 
said, " Not St. Dunstan's, I am sure." On the south of 
the church is a large tomb, with an effigy of Sir William 
Russell, 1705, a benefactor to the parish. On the north 
wall of the chancel is a monument to Sir John Moore 
(1702), whose loyalty as Lord Mayor (1681-2) is com- 
memorated in the "Ziloah" of Dryden's "Absalom and 
Achitophel." 

Archbishop Morton, the tutor of Sir Thomas More, was 
rector of St. Dunstan-in-the-East. Rooks, till recently, 
built their nests in the trees in the churchyard.* 

* See " Chronicles of St. Dunstan-in-the-East," by the Rev, T. Boyles Murray. 



424 WALKS IN LONDON. 

Mincing Lane, which leads northwards from hence, was 
" Mincheon Lane," so called from tenements in it which 
belonged to the Mincheons, or nuns of St. Helen's. 

The Church of St. Mary-at-Hill was partially rebuilt by 
Wren after the Great Fire, but only the east end remains 
from his work. John Brand, author of " The Popular" 
Antiquities," was rector, and was buried in the church, 1806. 
Dr. Young, author of " Night Thoughts," was married here, 
May, 1 73 1. 

On Fish Street Hill the Black Prince had a palace. 
Here, and as we emerge into King WilHam Street, the 
great feature on the right is the Monmnent, finished 1680, 
by desire of Charles II., from designs of Wren, to com- 
memorate the Great Fire of 1666. It is a fluted Doric 
column 202 feet in height, this being the exact number of 
feet by which it is distant from the site of the house in 
Pudding Lane, where the Fire began. The dragons on the 
pedestal are by Edward Pierce. The large and comical 
relief by Caius Gabriel Gibber commemorates the destruc- 
tion and restoration of the City. 

" The last figure on the left is intended to express London lying 
disconsolately upon her ruins, with the insignia of her civic grandeur 
partly buried beneath them. Behind her is Time gradually raising her 
up again, by whose side stands a female figure, typical of Providence, 
pointing with a sceptre formed of a \i'inged hand enclosing an eye to 
the angels of peace and plenty seated on the descending clouds. 
Opposite the City, on an elevated pavement, stands the effigy of 
Charles II, in a Roman habit, advancing to her aid attended by the 
Sciences holding a terminal figure of Nature, Liberty waving a hat, 
and Architecture bearing the instruments of design and the plan of the 
new City. Behind the king stands his brother the Duke of York, 
attended by Fortitude leading a lion, and Justice bearing a laurel 
coronet. Under an arch beneath the raised pavement on which these 
figures stand appears Envy looking upward, emitting pestiferous flames, 



THE MONUMENT. 



425 



and gnawing a heart. Eleven of the preceding figures are sculptured 
in alto-relievo ; whilst the background represents in basso-relievo the 
Fire of London, with the consternation of the citizens on the left-hand, 
and the rebuilding of it upon the right, with labourers at work upon 
unfinished houses." — Wilkinson^ s Londina Illustrata. 




Fish Street Hill. 



The pillar is surmounted by a metal vase of flames. The 
original design was to have a plain column, with flames 
bursting from holes all the way up, and a phoenix at the 
top. 



42b WALKS IN LONDON, 

The Fire began early in the morning of Sunday the 3rd 
of September, 1666, in the house of one Farryner, the 
King's Baker, in Pudding Lane. This man, when cross- 
examined before the Committee of the House of Commons, 
proved that he had left his house perfectly safe at twelve 
o'clock on Saturday night, and was convinced that it had 
been purposely fired. The rapidity with which the flames 
spread, chiefly owing to the number of houses built of 
timber, defied all measures for arresting them, though on 
the afternoon of the first day the King sent Pepys from 
Whitehall to the Lord Mayor, commanding him to " spare 
no houses, but pull down before the fire every way." By 
the first night Pepys could " endure no more upon the 
water, and from Bankside (Southwark) saw the fire grow, 
and as it grew darker, appear more and more, and in 
corners, and upon steeples, and between churches and 
houses, as far as we could see up the hill of the City, in a 
most horrid, malicious, bloody flame, not like the flame of 
an ordinary fire. We staid," he says, "till, it being darkish, 
we saw the fire as only one entire arch of fire from this to 
the other side of the bridge, and in a bow up the hill for an 
arch of above a mile long." Evelyn describes the dreadful 
scene of the same night — 

" I saw the whole south part of the City burning, from Cheapside to 
the Thames, and all along Comhill (for it likewise kindled back against 
the wdnd as well as forward), Tower Street, Fenchurch Street, Gracious 
Street, and so along to Baynard's Castle, and was taking hold of St. 
Paul's Church, to which the scaffolds contributed exceedingly. The 
conflagration was so universal, and the people so astonished, that, from 
the beginning, I know not by what despondency or fate, they hardly 
stirred to quench it ; so that there was nothing heard or seen but crying 
out and lamentation, running about like distracted creatures, without at 
all attempting to save even their goods ; such a strange consternation 



THE GREAT FIRE, 427 

there was upon them, so as it burned, both in breadth and length, the 
churches, pubUc halls, Exchange, hospitals, monuments, and ornaments, 
leaping after a prodigious manner from house to house and street to 
street, at great distances from one to the other ; for the heat, with a 
long set of fair and warm weather, had even ignited the air and 
prepared the materials to receive the fire, which devoured after an 
incredible manner houses, furniture, and everything. Here we saw the 
Thames covered with goods floating, all the barges and boats laden 
with what some had time and courage to save ; as on the other, the 
carts, &c., carrying out to the fields, which for many miles were strewn 
with moveables of all sorts, and tents erecting to shelter both people and 
what goods they could get away. Oh, the miserable and calamitous 
spectacle ! such as haply the world had not seen the like since the 
foundation of it, nor to be outdone till the universal conflagration of it. 
All the sky was of a fiery aspect, like the top of a burning oven, and 
the light seen for above forty miles round about for many nights : God 
grant mine eyes may never see the like ! who now saw above ten 
thousand houses all in one flame ; the noise and cracking and thunder 
of the impetuous flames, the shrieking of women and children, the 
hurry of people, the faU of towers, houses, and churches, was like a 
hideous storm, and the air all about so hot and inflamed that at last 
one was not able to approach it ; so that they were forced to stand still 
and let the flames bum on, which they did for near two miles in length 
and one in breadth. The clouds also of smoke were dismal, and reached, 
upon computation, near fifty miles in length." 

At noon on Tuesday the 5th the Fire first began to be 
checked, at the Temple Church m Fleet Street, and Pie Corner 
in Smithfield, gunpowder being then used in destroying the 
houses, and producing gaps too wide to be overleaped by 
the flames, but by that time the destruction had included 
eighty-nine churches, the City gates, Guildhall, many public 
structures, hospitals, schools, libraries, thirteen thousand 
two hundred dwelling-houses, four hundred streets ; out of 
twenty-six wards it had utterly destroyed fifteen, and left 
eight others shattered and half burnt. The ruins of the 
City covered four hundred and thirty-six acres, the part left 
standing occupied seventy-five acres : the loss was eleven 



428 WALKS IN LONDON. 

millions, but — London has never since suffered from the 
Plague. 

A committee was immediately formed to inquire into the 
causes of the Fire, before which one Robert Hubert, a 
French priest of Rouen, 25 years of age, declared that he 
had set fire intentionally to the house of Farryner, the 
baker in Pudding Lane, by putting a lighted fire-ball in at 
a window at the end of a long pole. He pointed out the 
exact spot where this occurred, and stated that he had been 
suborned at Paris for this deed, and that he had three 
accomplices. No one believed his story, yet the jury who 
tried him found him guilty, and he was hung. Afterwards 
it was shown that he was insane, and the master of the ship 
which brought him over from France proved that he did not 
land till two days after the Fire. Still the confession of 
Hubert, in those times of bitter religious animosity, when 
Titus Gates and his plot had excited additional horror of 
Papists, was considered sufficient to authorise the inscrip- 
tion on the pedestal of the Monument. 

" This pillar was set up in perpetual remembrance of that most 
dreadful buraing of this Protestant city, begun and carried on by ye 
treachery and milice of ye popish factio, in ye beginning of Septem, in 
ye year of our Lord 1666, in order to ye carrying on of their horrid 
plott for extirpating the Protestant rehgion and old English liberty, 
and the introducing popery and slavery. 

" Sed furor papisticus qui tarn dira patravit nondura restinguitur." 

This inscription was obliterated in the time of James IL, 
recut deeper than before under William IIL, and finally 
effaced Jan. 26, 1831. It is this inscription which makes 
Pope say — 

"Where London's column, pointing at the skies, 
Like a tall bully, lifts the head and lies." 

Moral Essays^ Ep. iii. 337. 



ST. M J GNUS. 



429 



The house on the site in Pudding Lane where the Fire 
began (No. 25) bore, till the middle of the last century, 
when it was removed because the crowds who stopped to 
read it intercepted the traffic, the inscription — 

" Here, by the permission of Heaven, Hell brake loose upon this 
Protestant city, from the malicious hearts of barbarous Papists, by the 
hand of their agent Hubert, who confessed, and on the ruins of this 
place declared the fact, for which he was hanged — viz., that here 
began the dreadful Fire, which is described and perpetuated on and by 
the neighbouring pillar, erected Anno 1680, in the mayoralty of Sir 
Patience Ward, Knight." 

The Monument, which may be wearily ascended for the 
sake of the view, which is very fine, when visible, is caged 
at the top in consequence of the mania for committing 
suicide from it. 

Close by is the Church of St. Magnus, a Norwegian jarl, 
killed in the 12th century in Orkney, where the Cathedral 
of Kirkwall is dedicated to him. It was rebuilt by Wren 
after the Fire, in 1676, and is one of his best churches. The 
tower has an octagonal lantern, crowned by a cupola and 
short spire, picturesque and effective. The roadway beneath 
it was made in 1760, when it was found necessary to widen 
the approach to Old London Bridge. This possibility had 
been foreseen by Wren, so that it was effected without diffi- 
culty, but has injured the solid effect of an otherwise beautiful 
building. The carved and gilt dial on the tower, erected in 
1709, at a cost of £,^Z^, was given in fulfilment of a vow 
by Sir Charles Duncomb, who when a poor boy, waiting 
for his master on London Bridge, lost him from not knowing 
the hour, and promised he would give a clock to St. 
Magnus, if he evei became rich. 



«o 



fVALKS IN LONDON. 



On the destruction of the Church of St. Bartholomew 
by the Exchange, the remains of Miles Coverdale, Bishop 
of Exeter, were removed to this church, of which he 
once was rector. A monument has been raised to his 
memory, and records how " On the 4th of October, 1535, 
the first complete English version of the Bible was pub- 
lished under his direction." 

Passing under the approach to London Bridge and the 
Fishmongers' Hall, we enter Upper Thames Street. On the 
right is St. Lawrence Poultfiey Hill, so called from Sir John 
Poultney, Lord Mayor in 1333 and 1336, who founded a 
chapel there to St. Laurence : it was destroyed in the Fire ; 
but its burial-ground remains. Poultney's Inn, the " right 
fair and stately house " of Sir John Poultney in Cold-Har- 
bour (Cole-Harbour) on the other side of Thames Street, 
was given by Henry VHI. to Tunstal, Bishop of Durham, 
in exchange for Durham House, but, on his deprivation, 
was bestowed by Edward VL on the fifth Earl of 
Shrewsbury. It was afterwards let out in poor tenements, 
inhabited by beggars, and as such is mentioned by Ben 
Jonson, and by Heywood and Rowley. 

On the right is Suffolk Lane, commemorating the house 
of the De la Poles, Dukes of Suffolk, and afterwards of 
Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk (brother-in-law of Henry 
VIII.), as Duck's Foot Alley is Duke's foot-lane — the private 
road from his garden to the river. Suffolk House was built 
on part of the Manor of the Rose, originally called Poult- 
ney's Inn. In 1447 it was the scene of the alleged treason 
of William de la Pole, Duke of Suffolk. Being afterwards 
in the hands of the Dukes of Buckingham, Charles Knevet, 
a surveyor who had been dismissed by Edward Stafford, 



ALLHALLOWS THE GREAT. 431 

Duke of Buckingham, in consequence of his tenants* 
complaints, was moved by revenge and the hope of 
reward to accuse his late master of treason. The answer 
of the surveyor when questioned by the King as to the 
Duke's design upon the succession is given by Shakspeare 
almost in the words of Holinshed — 

" Not long before your highness sped to France, 
The duke being at the Rose, within the parish 
Saint Laurence Poultney, did of me demand 
What was the speech amongst the Londoners 
Concerning the French journey ; I replied, 
Men fear'd the French would prove perfidious, 
To the Idng's danger." — Henry VIII. ^ Act I., sc. 2. 

After the attainder of Buckingham, the Manor of the Rose, 
being forfeited, was granted to Henry Courtenay, Marquis 
of Exeter. He was beheaded in 1539, and the manor, 
being again forfeited to the crown, was granted to Robert 
Radcliffe, Earl of Sussex, in whose family it continued till 
it was sold in 1651 to Richard Hill, Master of the Merchant 
Tailors' Company, who founded the Merchant Tailors' 
School, which stood in Suffolk Lane from the reign of 
EHzabeth till it was removed to the Charterhouse in 1873. 
The school buildings, of 1675, were pulled down when 
the school departed. 

On the right is the Church of AUhallows the Great, also 
called AUhallows ad foe?mm, from its position in the rope- 
making district, an ugly work of Wren, finished 1683, with 
a very handsome chancel screen, probably by Gibbons. 
The altar screen was presented by the Hanse merchants in 
the last century, and all the carving in the church executed 
at their expense, as a recognition of the connection of 



432 WALKS IN LONDON, 

their ancestors, merchants of the neighbouring Steel Yard, 
with this church : the eagle of the Hanse merchants sur- 
mounts the pulpit. This, according to Pepys, was one of 
the first churches which set up the royal arms before the 
Restoration. It contains one of the curious metrical monu- 
ments to Elizabeth — 



' Spain's rod, Rome's ruin, Netherland's relief. 
Heaven's gem, Earth's joy, World's wonder, Nature's chief, 
Britain's blessing, England's splendour. 
Religion's nurse, and Faith's defender." 



Passing under the Cannon Street Railway Terminus, 
occupying the site of the Stilliard, where the Hanse mer- 
chants settled in 1250 and remained till they were expelled 
in the reign of Elizabeth, 1597 — 8, we find an ancient 
water-gate — sometimes believed to have been the western as 
Billingsgate the eastern gate of Roman London — commemo- 
rated in Dowgate or Doivnegate Hill, where, says Strype, 
"the water comes down from other streets with that 
swiftness that it ofttimes causeth a flood in the lower part." 
Ben Jonson says — 

" Thy canvass giant at some channel aims, 
Or Dowgate torrents falling into Thames." 

On the west side of Dowgate Hill is the Hall of the 
Dyers' Companj, and, adjoining it, the Hall of the Skinners^ 
Company y incorporated in 1327. The front towards the 
street was rebuilt in 1790, but that facing the Courtyard, 
of red and black bricks alternately with a characteristic 
wooden porch, was built immediately after the Fire. In 
the Court Room is an admirable portrait of Sir Andrew 



DOWGATE HILL. 



433 



Judde (a skinner), the founder of Tunbridge School, whose 
tomb is in Great St. Helen's. A fine old staircase, adorned 
with a portrait of Sir T. Pilkington, Lord Ma} or 1689, 
1690, and 1 69 1 (satirised in '• The Triennial Mayor "), leads 
to the Cedar Drawing Room, one of the noblest old rooms 




At Skinnors' Hall. 



I 



in London, entirely panelled with cedar, relieved by gild- 
ing, with a far-projecting fireplace. 

In Cloak Lane, Dowgate Hill, is the Cutlers' Hall, re- 
built 1854. An old house near it bears the arms of the 
Company, an elephant with a castle on its back. 

On College Hill (right) was the College of St. Spirit and 

VOL. I. F F 



434 WALKS IN LONDON. 

St. Mary, founded by Dick Whittington, thrice Lord Mayor 
of London. Here now is the Mercers' School, founded for 
70 children by the Mercers' Company. The Collegiate 
Church of St. Michael, Paternoster Royal, also built from 
funds left by Whittington. Stow says — 

" Richard Whittington was in this church three times buried : first 
by his executors under a fair monument ; then, in the reign of 
Edward VI., the parson of that church, thinking some great riches (as 
he said) to be buried with him, caused his monument to be broken, his 
body to be spoiled of his leaden sheet, and again the second time to be 
buried ; and, in the reign of Queen Mary, the parishioners were forced 
to take him up, to lap him in lead as before, to bury him the third 
time, and to place his monument, or the like, over him again, and so 
he resteth."— p.91. 

He did not, however, even " so rest," for his monument 
was destroyed in the Great Fire, and the present church 
is one of Wren's rebuildings. The altar-piece is Hilton's 
picture of the Magdalen anointing the feet of Christ. John 
Cleveland, the poetical champion of Charles I., whose works 
had such an enormous sale at the time, was buried in this 
church in 1659. 

Three Cranes Lane, on the left, is so called from the 
machines so common here, used by the merchants of 
Bordeaux in landing their wines. It was in a ware- 
house near " the Three Cranes in the Vintry " that the 
Protectress, Oliver Cromwell's widow, secreted " seventeen 
cart-loads of rich stuff," which she had taken away from 
Whitehall. 

Queen Street leads to Southwark Bridge, of cast-iron on 
stone piers, built by John Rennie, 1815 — 19. Just beyond, 
on the left, is the open court-yard of the Hall of the 
Vintners'' Co77ipany, incorporated, under the name of " the 



QUEENHITHh. 435 

Wine Tonners," in the reign of Edward III. The flat- 
roofed hall is surrounded by good oak panelling, and has 
modern stained windows. The life-size swans at the end 
commemorate the right which this Company, with the 
Queen, and the Dyers' Company, alone hold to all the 
swans on the Thames. The Company annually go 
" swan-upping " * to Henley-on-Thames, and mark their 
cygnets with two nicks, whence the popular sign of " the 
Swan with two necks." The patron saint of the Company 
is St. Martin,! who is commemorated here by some very 
curious old tapestry, and in a picture by Rubens. The 
Court-Room has the usual royal portraits. The old 
staircase, with garlands on the bannisters, is admirable 
in design. 

Behind the houses on the right of Thames Street is 
another wretched work of Wren, St. James Garlickhithcj so 
called because " of old time, on the bank of the river of 
Thames, near to this church, garlick was usually sold." It 
was in this church that Steele first " discovered the excel- 
lency of the Common Prayer," when he " heard the service 
read so distinctly, so emphatically, and so fervently, that it 
was next to an impossibility to be inattentive." | 

In Little Trinity Lane (right) is the Painter-stainers' HalJ^ 
rebuilt after the Great Fire on the site of the Hall where 
the Relief Commission met during the Great Plague of 
1664. The Hall contains a number of good royal portraits 
from Charles I. downwards. 

We now reach Queenhithej a name derived from the 

* On what is called " the Swan-voj'age." 

+ The Church of St. Martin in the Vintry, where Sir John Gisors of Gisors Hall 
was buried with his brother and son, was burnt in the Fire and never rebuilt* 
t Spectator, No. 147. 



436 WALKS IN LONDON, 

♦' quern " or mill for the corn landed there : in some docu- 
ments of the twelfth century it is spelt Corn-hithe. The 
place, however, was early known as " Ripa Reginge," being 
given by John to his mother Eleanor of Aquitaine. Tolls 
of this port, paid according to the value of the lading of 
vessels, were afterwards part of the revenue of the Queen's 
Consort. It was the attempt of Eleanor of Provence to 
force every vessel laden with corn, wool, or other cargo 
of value to land here which was a leading cause of 
her unpopularity. In Peek's "Chronicle-play of King 
Edward I." (1593) Eleanor, being accused of her crimes, 
'■eplies — 

" If that upon so vile a thing 
Her heart did ever think 
She wish'd the ground might open wide, 
And therein she might sink ! 

With that at Charing-cross she sunk 

Into the ground aUve ; 
And after rose with life again, 

In London at Queenhithe." 

The Church of St. Michael, Queenhithe, lately destroyed, 
one of Wren's rebuildings, had a vane with a ship made to 
contain a bushel of grain, the great article of Queenhithe 
traffic. 

At Brokenwharf (left) on the river was the stone palace 
of the Bigods and Mowbrays, Earls and Dukes of Nor- 
folk, after their removal from the site of Norfolk Row in 
Lambeth. 

Passing the Tower of St. Mary Somerset, which belonged 
to one of Wren's churches, and which groups so well with 
later buildings — the only tower of a destroyed Wren 
church which the City has respected, and, what an oma- 



CASTLE BAYNARD. 437 

ment it is ! and glancing into the Churchyard of St. Peter , 
PauTs Wharfs destroyed in the Great Fire, and never re- 
built, we reach St. Benet^ Paul's Wharf (on the right), 
another of Wren's feeble churches. It is strange that 
he should not have had the grace to restore the tomb of 
Inigo Jones, who was buried in the old church, June 26, 
1652, aged 80, having been much persecuted for his Roman 
Catholic opinions. Sir William Le Neve, John Philpott, 
and William Oldys, also buried here, were all heralds from 
the college close by. In St. Benet's churchyard was the 
punning epitaph — 

" Here lies one More, and no more than he. 
One More and no more ! how can that be ? 
One More and no more may well lie here alone ; 
But here lies one More, and that's more than one." 

Castle Baynard Dock commemorates the feudal house 
called Baynard's Castle, destroyed in the Great Fire, and 
"so called of Baynard, a nobleman that came in with 
William the Conqueror."* It was to Maud Fitzwalter, 
daughter of "the Lord of Castle Baynard," that King 
John paid his unwelcome addresses. The palace built on 
this site by Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, was the place 
where the crown was offered to Richard III. Those who 
have seen Shakspeare's play acted will remember Richard's 
appearance in the upper gallery here, between two bishops, 
and Catesby and Buckingham, in the hall beneath, with 
the mayor and aldermen, endeavouring to overcome his 
hypocritical reluctance to accept the kingdom. Lady Jane 
Grey was proclaimed here in 1553. Anne, "Dorset, 
Pembroke, and Montgomery," afterwards lived here while 

• Stow, p. 136. 



438 WALKS IN LONDON, 

her husband was residing at the Cockpit in Whitehall. 
Baynard's Castle had ten narrow gloomy towers towards 
the river, and, in the centre, an arched water-gate and 
broad staircase. 

Thames Street ends at Blackfriars Bridge^ an ugly erec- 
tion of Joseph Cubitt (1867) supplanting the fine work 
of Robert Mylne, executed in 1760 — 69. The older 
bridge was at first called Pitt Bridge, in honour of the 
great minister, who is still commemorated in William 
Street, Earl Street, and Chatham Place. Mylne's work 
was so appreciated at the time that he was buried in state 
near Sir Christopher Wren in St. Paul's, but his bridge 
was demolished within a hundred years of its erection, and 
even his house has been swept away by the erection of the 
Ludgate Hill Station of the London, Chatham, and Dover 
Railway. 

Near this, but invisible, is the point — 

" Where Fleet Ditch, with disemboguing streams, 
Rolls its large tribute of dead dogs to Thames." 

Pope. Dunciad, 

Blackfriars takes its name from the Dominican monks 
who came to England in 122 1, and first settled in Holborn 
on land now occupied by Lincoln's Inn. In 1276 they 
moved to the banks of the Thames, where their monastery 
and church rose to great splendour through the constant 
favour of Edward I., who deposited the heart of his 
beloved Eleanor at Blackfriars, when her body was taken 
to Westminster. The belief that "to be buried in the 
habit of the Order was a sure preservative agamst the 
attacks of the devil" afterwards led to the interment of 
many great and wealthy personages in the monastic church, 



BLACKFRIARS, 439 

including Hubert de Burgh, Earl of Kent, and his wife 
Margaret of Scotland; Tiptoft, Earl of Worcester, be- 
headed in the Wars of the Roses ; and Sir Thomas and 
Dame Maude Parr, father and mother of Queen Katherine 
Parr. Several Parliaments met in the monastery. The 
" Black Parliament," which took its name from hence, with 
Sir Thomas More as its Speaker, here received the exorbi- 
tant demands of Henry VIH. for a subsidy for his French 
wars, insolently conveyed through Wolsey. Charles V. 
insisted upon lodging at the Prior's house when he came to 
London in 1522, though Bridewell Palace was proposed 
for him. But Blackfriars Monastery will always be best 
remembered as the place, made familiar by Shakspeare 
(who knew it well), where (June 21, 1529) the two Car- 
dinals, Wolsey and Campeggio, sate in judgment upon 
the divorce of Catherine of Arragon, and where the 
queen, as "a poor weak woman, fallen from favour," 
flinging herself at her husband's feet, made that touching 
speech, which has been scarcely altered by Shakspeare. 
On the same spot, only a few months later, Parliament 
pronounced its sentence of pramunire against Wolsey him- 
self. 

Blackfriars was granted by Edward VI. to Sir Thomas 
C a warden, " Master of the King's Revels," who pulled 
down its church of many associations and that of St. Anne, 
which adjoined it. Both, however, would have perished in 
the Fire. Sir William More, who was Cawarden's executor, 
granted part of the monastic buildings to James Burbage, 
who, in 1596, converted them into the first regular Theatre 
erected in Blackfriars, though plays had already been acted 
within the precincts. In this theatre Shakspeare, who 



440 WALKS IN LONDON, 

bought a house in Blackfriars, was himself an actor in 1598 
in Ben Jonson's Every Man in his Humour, The theatre 
was pulled down in 1655. 

Blackfriars has many other associations. Ben Jonson 
dates the dedication of his Volpo?ie from "my house at 
Blackfriars this nth day of February, 1607." Nat Field 
the player and dramatist ; Dick Robinson the player ; Van- 
dyke (whom Charles I. came by water to visit here), Cor- 
nelius Jansen, and Isaac Oliver the painters ; and Faithorne 
the engraver, resided here. The wicked Earl and Countess 
ot Somerset were also inhabitants ot Blackfriars, and were 
here at the time of Sir Thomas Overbury's murder.* 

In order to visit in a group the interesting points in 
Blackfriars, we may turn up Water Lane, the last side street 
on the right before reaching New Bridge Street. Here 
(right) is the Apothecaries' Hall, belonging to one of the 
busiest and most useful of the City Companies, which was 
founded in the reign of James I. Except the Stationers* it 
is the only Company whose members are strictly what its 
name implies, and it has five hundred members. The 
laboratories connected with this Hall result from the asso- 
ciation of the Apothecaries and Druggists. For till 1687 
apothecaries were only what druggists are now, and it was 
their presuming to prescribe which gave such offence to 
the College of Physicians in the seventeenth century and 
led to the verses of Garth — 

" Nigh where Fleet Ditch descends in sable streams, 
To wash his sooty Naiads in the Thames, 
There stands a structure on a rising hill. 
Where tyros take their freedom out to kill.** 

• See Tht Builder, Aug. 12, isto. — 



APOTHECARIES' HALL. 441 

But in 1703 ii decision of the House of Lords permitted 
apothecaries to advise as well as to dispense medicines, 
and no less than one hundred and ten examinations are 
now held annually at the Hall for students seeking a 
licence. The long black oak Gallery facing the court is 
called by the students the " Funking Room " because there 
they are kept waiting before being ushered into the presence 
of their examiners. It is lined with immensely deep cup- 
boards (many of them concealed) used as bookcases. Its 
curiosities mclude a Catalogue of Plants of 1662, with the 
Latin MS, notes of John Ray (1627 — 1704), the eminent 
botanist and "founder of modern zoology,"* written during 
his travels. The stained windows bear the mottoes — "Beare 
with one another ; Love as Brethren : Et bene dum vivis, 
post mortem vivere si vis." The Hall, lined with black 
oak, was built just after the Fire. A contemporary bust of 
Gideon de Laune here commemorates the physician of 
Anne of Denmark, who obtained their charter for the 
Apothecaries. Beneath it is a magnificent old iron-bound 
chest, with a lock guarded by four apes. In the Court 
Room is a picture of De Laune with many other portraits, 
including that of the famous Dr. Richard Mead, 17 17, and 
a sketch by Sir Joshua Reynolds for his portrait of Dr. 
Hunter (1728 — 83) now in the College of Surgeons. A 
slight canopy on the left of the Court Room marks the spot 
where the Master formerly sate upon a dais, and formally 
admitted the student candidates, who bowed before him on 
the step. 

At the back of the Hall are the Chemical Laboratories, 
established 167 1, from which the Army is still supplied with 

* Cuvier. " Biog. Univ." 



442 WALKS IN LONDON. 

medicines, and which formerly supplied the Navy also. We 
may visit the "Mortar Room," "Test Room," and "Magnesia 
Room." Jalap, Seidlitz Powders, Lozenges, and many other 
medicines are here in a constant state of preparation by 
machinery ; and there are vaults for the formation and con- 
seiving of tinctures, with warehouses and dispensaries. 
The preparation of some of the drugs, especially those 
containing mercury, is so deleterious to the workmen that, 
though they work in helmets with glass eyes, they are 
constantly obliged to be allowed a few days' leave of 
absence. 

Turning left we reach Carter Lane. The names of the 
side arteries of this Lane — Friar Street, Creed Lane, Holi- 
day Yard, and Pilgrim Street — bear record of the great 
religious house in their neighbourhood, and of the ancient 
pilgrimages to the shrine of St. Erkenwald. On the right 
is the entrance of Wardrobe Place, a quiet court, with dark- 
red brick houses and young trees, which marks the site 
of the building known as " the Kings' Wardrobe," erected 
by Sir J. Beauchamp (whose tomb, in the centre of the 
nave of St. Paul's, was mistaken for that of Duke Hum- 
phrey), and sold to Edward IH. It was a sort of Museum 
of the robes worn by the kings on different state occasions, 
and became, as Fuller describes, " a library for antiquaries 
therein to read the mode and fashion of garments of all 
ages." 

Retracing our steps a little, Church Entry (on the left of 
Carter Lane as we return) contains, against the wall of 
Blackfriars School, a monument to Dr. William Gouge, 
who was minister of the old Church of St. Anne when 
Shakspeare was residing here, and who, being of like prin- 



THE TIMES OFFICE, 443 

ciples, was probably of his personal acquaintance. Church 
Entry leads into Ireland Yardy which takes its name from 
the William Ireland whose name appears in a deed of con- 
veyance to Shakspeare of a house on that site. Hence, 
turning to the right, through Glass House Yard (of which 
the name is the memorial of an attempt by a Venetian in 
Elizabeth's reign, to introduce one of his native glass manu- 
factories, to the great disgust of London glass- workers) we 
come to Flay House Yard^ commemorating the old Theatre 
where Shakspeare acted. The yard now resounds with the 
roar of machinery in the Times Printing Office^ which 
has a great new front towards Queen Victoria Street. The 
principal entrance, however, is in the retired court called 
Printing House Square, so called from the office of the 
King's Printer which existed here 1770, in the old building 
marked by the royal arms over its entrance. In the square 
are two rare old trees of much interest to botanists. 

The Times Newspaper, the leading journal of Europe, 
was commenced by John Walter, its first number, of January 
I, 1788, being a continuation of the Daily Universal 
Register. The Times of November 29, 18 14, was the first 
newspaper printed by steam. 

" No description can give any adequate idea of one of the Times 
machines in full work, — the maze of wheels and rollers, the intricate 
lines of swift-moving tapes, the flight of sheets, and the din of 
machinery. The central drum moves at the rate of six feet per 
second, or one revolution in three seconds ; the impression cylinder 
makes five revolutions in the same time. The layer-on delivers two 
sheets every five seconds, consequently fifteen sheets are printed in 
that brief space. The Times employs two of these eight-cylinder 
machines, each of which averages 12,000 impressions per hour; and 
one nine-cylinder, wiiich prints 16,000" (Ency. Brit.). In addition to 
these, Howe's American machine, with ten horizontal cylinders, prints 
20,000 copies in an hour. 



444 WALKS IN LONDON. 

A charming drive along the new Thames Embankment 
leads from Blackfriars Bridge to Westminster. Its great 
feature is Waterloo Bridge, the noble work of George 
Rennie, built 1811 — 1817 and opened on the second anni- 
versary of the Battle of Waterloo. It is built of granite, 
and has nine arches, one hundred and twenty inches span 
and thirty-five high. Canova considered it "the noblest 
bridge in the world — worth a visit from the remotest 
corners of the earth ; " and Dupin describes it as " a colossal 
monument worthy of Sesostris and the Caesars/* 



CHAPTER XII. 
LONDON BRIDGE AND SOUTHWARK. 

AT the entrance of London Bridge, upon the right, is 
the Fishmonger^ Hall, rebuilt by H, Roberts in 
183 1, in the place of a Hall of which Jarnan was the archi- 
tect after the Great Fire. It is one of those huge palaces 
of dignified repose which are such a feature of the City. 
On the landing of the stairs is a statue* of Sir William Wal- 
worth, 1698, painted, but carved in wood by Edward Peirce 
the statuary, who died in 1698.* On the pedestal is in- 
scribed — 

" Brave Walworth, Kjiight, Lord Major yt slew 

Rebellious Tyler in his alarmes. 
The King, therefore, did give in Hew 

The Dagger in the cityes armes. 
In the 4th yeare of Richard 11. Anno Domini. 1381." 

The dagger of Walworth is preserved in the Hal!, in a 
glass-case, and is certainly of the fourteenth century, but 
unfortunately the so-called " dagger " was borne in the city- 
arms centuries before the time of Wat Tyler, and represents 
the sword of St. Paul, the patron of the corporation. 

On the Staircase are portraits of — 

• Horace \\^alpole. 



446 WALKS TN LONDON, 

William III. and Mary II. Murray. 

George II. and Caroline of Anspach. Shackleton, 

In the Court Dining Room are — 

Romney. Frederick Christian, Margrave of Anspach, nephew of Caro- 
line, Queen of George II., who sold his principalities to the King ol 
Prussia and came to live in England. Ob. 1806. 

Elizabeth, Margravine of Anspach, 1750 — 1820, daughter of the 
fourth Earl of Berkeley, married in 1767 to William, sixth Lord Craven, 
and in 1 791 to the Margtive of Anspach. I'fc e existence of the pictures 
here commemorates a fete she gave to the Fishmongers' Company at 
her residence of Brandenburg House on the Thames. 

The Great Banqueting Hall contains portraits of 

Queen Victona, 1840. Herbert Smith, 
The Duke of Kent. Beechey. 
The Duke of Sussex. 

In the Small Meeting Room is a fine portrait of 

Earl St. Vincent, by Beechey. The flag presented to him by the 
crew of the Ville de Paris is preserved here. 

In the Waiting Room are some curious old pictures, 
including a representation of the Pageant of the Fish- 
mongers' Company on October 29, 16 16, when Sir J. Leraan, 
Fishmonger, became Lord Mayor. The relics here in- 
clude — 

The magnificent Pall, worked by nuns, used at the funeral of Sir 
William Walworth in 1381.* Its principal subject is our Saviour 
giving the keys to St. Peter, at the ends are representations of the 
Deity and Angels. 

The Master's Chair, made of oak from the piles of Old London 
Bridge, with the seat formed from the foundation-stone laid in 1 1 76, 
and fished up in 1832. 

* The palls preserved in many of the old City Halls are relics of the time 
when the Halls were let out for ceremonies of lying in state. 



LONDON BRIDGE, 447 

The Fishmongers' Company were formidable neighbours 
to Billingsgate, as they had power " to enter and seize bad 
fish," and they still employ inspectors, who bring in a 
report of the quantity of unwholesome fish destroyed. A 
member of the company named Thomas Dogget, who died 
in 182 1, being a determined Whig, left a sum for an orange 
coat and silver Hanoverian badge to be contended for on 
the Thames every ist of August by six young watermen. 

London Bridge was built 1825 — 31 from designs of John 
Rennie (son of a farmer in East Lothian) and his sons John 
and George, at a cost of nearly two millions, but is already 
found insufficient, and will soon (1877) be widened, and 
probably spoilt. 

There was a bridge here in Saxon times, defended by 
towers and bulwarks, where, in 1008, was fought " the Battle 
of London Bridge," in which Olaf * the king and saint of 
Norway assisted Ethelred the Unready in defeating the 
Danes. In 11 76 the first stone bridge was built by Peter, 
priest of St. Mary Cqlechurch, in which Thomas a Becket 
had been baptized. Htnce, on the central pier, Colechurch 
erected a chapel in honour of the sainted archbishop, 
where, when he died in 1205, he was himself buried. This 
chapel was of great beauty, having a crypt, connected by 
a flight of stairs with the river. All the other piers were 
covered with houses, and towards the Southwark side from 
the end of the sixteenth century stood " Nonsuch House," 
a fantastic building of wood, said to have been constructed 
in Holland, with four towers, crowned by domes with gilded 
vanes. The last building on the Southwark side was " the 

• Commemorated in the singular corrupted name of Tooley (Olaf) Street, on 
the south bank of the river, where he is patron of the parish. 



448 WALKS IN LONDON. 

Traitors' Gate." The heads exposed here included those ol 
William Wallace, 1305 ; the Earl of Northumberland, 1408 ; 
and Bishop Fisher and Sir Thomas More, 1535. Hall says 
that at the end of a fortnight Fisher's head had to be 
thrown into the Thames, because the bridge was choked up 
with people coming to see it, " for it could not be per- 
ceived to waste nor consume . . . but daily grew fresher 
and fresher, so that in his lifetime he never looked so well ; 
for his cheeks being beautified with a comely red, the face 
looked as though it had beholden the people passing by, 
and would have spoken to them." Sir Thomas More's 
head was removed after a time to make room for others, 
and would also have been thrown into the Thames, but this 
opportunity had been watched for by his loving daughter 
Margaret Roper, who bought it and conveyed it safely away 
to Canterbury. After the Restoration the heads of some of 
the regicides were exposed here. 

On St. George's Day in 1390 the famous passage at arms 
in the presence of Richard II. was fought on London 
Bridge between Lord Welles and the chivalrous Sir David 
Lindsay of Gleneck, in which the Scottish knight was com- 
pletely triumphant.* 

In the sixth picture ot Hogarth's ** Marriage k la Mode " 
the appearance of the houses on old London Bridge may 
be seen. At one time the booksellers' shops on London 
Bridge had the reputation which those of Paternoster Row 
have now. The infant daughter of Sir William Hewett, a 
famous clock-maker on the bridge, Lord Mayor of London 
in 1559, fell from one of the overhanging windows and was 
saved from drowning by the gallantry of his apprentice 

• See the picturesque account in *' The Lives of the Lindsays.*' 



LONDON BRIDGE, 449 

Edward Osborne, who was eventually rewarded with her 
hand and a large dowry. Osborne himself was Lord Mayor 
in 1582, and his great-grandson became Duke of Leeds. 
Pennant describes the street on London Bridge shortly 
before its fall — "narrow, darksome, and dangerous to 
passengers from the multitude of carriages : frequent arches 
of strong timbers crossing the street from the tops of the 
houses, to keep them together and from falling into the 
river. Nothing but use could preserve the repose of the 
inmates, who soon grew deaf to the noise of falling waters, 
the clamours of watermen, or the frequent shrieks of drown- 
in ^^ wretches." The narrowness of the arches beneath tlie 
bridge, and the consequent compression of the river, made 
"shooting the bridge" very dangerous. Ray's proverb, 
" London Bridge was made for wise men to go over, and 
fools to go under," shows the popular feeling about its 
rapids. Cowley describes the river as — 

" Stopp'd by the houses of that wondrous street. 
Which rides o'er the broad river like a fleet." 

In its later existence most of the houses on the bridge 
were inhabited by pin-makers, and it was a fashionable 
amusement with west-end ladies to drive to buy their pins 
there. In the last century the old houses, in one of which 
Hans Holbein had lived, were removed one after the other. 
Fuller says of Old London Bridge — 

" The middle thereof is properly in none, the two ends in two coun- 
ties, Middlesex and Surrey. Such who only see it beneath, where it is 
a bridge, cannot suspect it should be a street ; and such who behold it 
above, where it is a street, cannot believe it is a bridge." 

Immediately beyond London Bridge, on the left, now 
half-buried amongst raised streets and railways, is the fine 
VOL. I. G G 



450 WALKS IN LONDON. 

cruciform Church of St, Saviour's^ Southwark. It has been 
sadly mutilated in the present century, but its Lady Chapel 
and choir are still amongst our best specimens of Early 
English architecture. They are surrounded by a flower and 
vegetable market, and a churchyard, in which the great 
dramatic poet Massinger was originally buried. The 
entry in the register is " March 20, 1639 — 4°' buried PhiUp 
Massinger, a stranger." This was formerly the church be- 
longing to the priory of St. Mary Overy, which Stow on the 
authoiity of Linsted, the last prior, says was originally 
founded by Mary Overy, a ferry woman, who, long before 
the Conquest or the existence of any bridge over the river, 
devoted her earnings to this purpose. She was buried 
within the walls of the church, and, by some, its dedication 
has been supposed to refer to her, as the Virgin Mother is 
not the St. Mary referred to, having her own chapel — the 
** Lady Chapel " — annexed to the building. The foundation 
of Mary Overy was for a House of Sisters, but this was 
afterwards turned into a College of Priests by Swithin, a 
noble lady, who is said to have built the first timber bridge 
over the river; and, in 1106, it was refounded for canons 
regular by William Pont de I'Arche and William Dauncy, 
two Norman knights. At the dissolution the church was 
made parochial. It had already become known as St. 
Saviour's, for in 15 10 it was brought as a charge against 
one Joane Baker that she said she was "sorry she had 
gone on so many pilgrimages, as to St. Saviour's, and divers 
other pilgrimages." 

The Choir, of the most exquisite and unspoilt Early 
English architecture, retains its beautiful altar-screen, 
erected by Fox, Bishop of Winchester, in 1528, and adorned 



ST. SAVIOUR'S, SOUTHWARK. 451 

with his device, the peh'can. Here Edmund Holland, last 
Earl of Kent, grandson of the Fair Maid of Kent, was 
married in 1406 to Lucia, eldest daughter of Bernabo 
Visconti, tyrant of Milan, Henry IV. giving away the bride. 
In the pavement an inscription marks the grave to which 
Philip Massmger has been removed from the churchyard. 
Near it is that of John Fletcher (Beaumont and Fletcher), 
1625, of whom Aubrey says that, during the great Plague, 
he was invited by a Knight in Suffolk or Norfolk to take 
refuge with him till the danger should be over, but lingered 
while his tailor made him a suit of new clothes, fell sick, 
and died. 

On the left of the north transept is the beautiful tomb of 
John Gower the Poet, ob. 1402, removed from the Chan trey 
of St. John, where he had been buried in accordance with 
his will. He had contributed largely to the restoration of 
the church, in which, in 1399, he had been married to Alice 
Groundolf by William of Wykeham, Bishop of Winchester. 
Stow accurately describes the monument. 

" He Ueth under a tomb of stone, with his image also of stone over 
him : the hair of his head, auburn, long to tiis shoulders but curling up, 
and a small forked beard ; on his head a chaplet like a coronet of four 
roses ; a habit of purple, damasked down to his feet ; * a collar of 
esses gold about his neck ; under his head the likeness of three books 
which he compiled." — P. 152. 

The three works of Gower upon which his head reposes 
are — i. The Speculutn Mediiajttis, a work upon connubial 
chastity, written in French after the fashion of the time, 
which prescribed either French or Latin as the language 
of poetry, a rule first violated- by Chaucer. 2. The Vox 

• Now repainted. 



452 



WALKS IN LONDON, 



Claj?ianHs, written in Latin. 3. The Confessio Amanns, 
written in English, after Chaucer had pubHshed his other 
works, but before the Canterbury Tales. It is on this 
poem, which represents a dialogue between a lover and his 
confessor, that the reputation of Gower is founded. It was 
finished in 1393, and is said to have been written in answer 




Gower's Tomb. 



to the desire of Richard II., who, meeting the poet one day 
upon the Thames, called him into his barge, and desired him 
to "booke some new thing." The first edition contained 
many passages flattering to King Richard, but the time- 
serving poet afterwards either omitted these altogether or 
converted them to the praise of his rival and successor 



ST. saviour's, southwark. 



453 



Henry IV. Gower was educated for the law at the Middle 
Temple and is believed there to have contracted a friend- 
ship with Chaucer. Their tastes were the same, and Gowei: 
was especially attached to the patronage of Thomas of 
Woodstock, one of the uncles of Richard III., as Chaucer 
was to that of another, John of Gaunt. It is believed, how- 
ever, that the friendship of the poets was turned to enmity 




Sleeping Sifter, St. Mary Overy. 



before the death of Chaucer. Gower became blind in the 
first year of Henry IV. and died in 1402. A tablet used 
to hang by his tomb inscribed, " Whosoever prayeth for the 
soul of John Gower, he shall, so oft as he doth, have an 
M and a D dayes of pardon." 

Against the pillar on the left, adjoining the tomb, are the 
arms of Cardinal Henry Beaufort, son of John of Gaunt, 



454 WALKS IN LONDON, 

who was consecrated Bishop of Winchester and came to 
Winchester House close to this church in the year of 
Gower's death. Against the same pillar is a curious minia- 
ture tomb to WiUiam Emerson, 1575, " who Hved and died 
an honest man." He is represented in his shroud. 

Opposite that of Gower is the tomb, with curious coloured 
half-figures, of John Bingham, 1625, saddler to Queen Eliza- 
beth and King James I. 

In the south transept is the strange allegorical tomb of 
William Austen, 1626, author of " Certain Devout, Learned, 
and Godly Meditations." There is much grandeur in the 
figures of the sifters sleeping, deeply with their prongs 
over their shoulders, while waiting for the great final 
harvest. 

Next is the tomb of Dr. Lockyer the pill-inventor, with 
his figure in the costume of Charles II.'s time, reclining 
upon it, and the inscription — 

"Here Lockyer lies interr'd ; enough, his name 
Speakes, which hath few competitors in fame. 
A name, soe great, soe generalle, may scome 
Inscriptions which doe vulgar tombs adome. 
A diminution 'tis, to write in verse 
His eulogies, which most men's mouth's rehearse. 
His virtues and his PILLS are soe well knowne, 
That envy can't confine them under stone, 
But they'll sui-vive his dust, and not expire, 
Till all things else at th' universal fire. 
This verse is lost, his PILL embalm's him safe 
To future times, without an epitaph." 

Alas, however, the pills have not survived the dust, and 
Lockyer is unembalmed. 

Passing the tomb of Richard Blisse, 1703, and a weird natne- 
less figure in a shroud ascribed by tradition to "Audery," 



ST. SAVIOUR'S, SOUTHWARK. 455 

father of Mary Overy,* we enter the south aisle of the choir, 
containing the tomb of John Trehearne, Gectleman Porter 
to James I., and his wife, with coloured half-figures, and the 
epitaph — 

"In the king's coiu-t-yard place to thee is given, 
Whence thou shalt go to the king's court of heaven." 

An epitaph surpassed by that on Miss Barford, which 

narrates how — 

" Such grace the King of Kings bestow'd upon her, 
That now she lives with Him a Maid of Honour." 

Close by are two niches, supposed to be the tombs of 
Pont de Arche and Dauncy, the second founders of the 
church ; in one of them is a cross-legged effigy. Opposite, 
between the pillars of the choir, is the alabaster tomb of 
Alderman Richard Humble (1616) and his two wives. The 
inscription is attributed to Francis Quarles — 

" Like to the damask rose you see, 
Or like the blossom on the tree. 
Or like the dainty flower of May, 
Or like the morning of the day, 
Or like the sun, or like the shade, 
Or like the gourd which Jonas had, 

** E'en so is Man, whose thread is spun. 
Drawn out, and cut, and so is done. 

" The rose withers, the blossom blasteth. 
The flower fades, the morning hasteth ; 
The sun sets, the shadow flies. 
The gourd consumes, and Man he dies." 

• There is a curious tract called "The true History of the Life and sudden 
Death of old John Overs, the rich Ferryman of London, showing how he lost his 
life by his own covetousness ; and of his daughter Mary, who caused the church 
of S. Mary Overs in South wark to be built, and of the building of London Bridge." 
It narrates how John Overs counterfeited death, thinking to economise by 
making his household fast for a day, but they feasted instead, whereat he arose in 
a fury and killed an apprentice, for which he was executed. 



456 



WALKS IN LONDON. 



Other persons buried here without a monument are Sir 
Edward Dyer, the Elizabethan pastoral poet, 1607, who 
lived and died in Winchester House ; and Edmond Shak- 
speare, the poet's younger brother; the register merely 
says, " Edmond Shakspeare, a player, in the church." 

The beautiful Lady Chapel was used in the time of 
Mary I. as the consistorial court of Gardiner, Bishop of 




Lady Chapel, St. Mary Overy. 



Winchester, and here Bishop Hooper and John Rogers, 
Vicar of St. Sepulchre's, were condemned to be burnt — the 
popular feeling in favour of the latter being so strong at the 
time that he had to be conveyed from hence by night in 
secrecy to Newgate.* 

Here is the black and white marble tomb of Bishop 

• Milman's "Annals of St. Paul's." 



ST. SAVIOUR'S, SOUTHIVARK, 457 

Lancelot Andrews, 1628, with the inscription "September 
21. Die lunae hora matutina fere quarta Lancelotus 
Andrewes, episcopusWintonensis,meritissimum lumen orbis 
Christiani mortuus est (ephemeris laudiana) anno Domini, 
1626, getatis suae 71." The tomb was brought hither from a 
chapel called the Bishop's Chapel, which formerly existed 
to the east of the Lady Chapel, where it had a canopy 
inscribed, " Reader, if thou art a Christian, stay ; it will be 
worth thy tarrying to know how great a man lies here." 
Queen Elizabeth, who delighted in the preaching of 
Andrews, raised him from the Mastership of Pembroke Hall 
to the Deanery of Westminster, but he refused to accept 
any bishopric in her reign, because he would not submit to 
an alienation of the ecclesiastical revenue. James I. 
preferred him to any other divine as a preacher, and 
selected him to answer Cardinal Bellarmine, who had 
attacked his "Defence of the rights of Kings." In 1605 
he was made Bishop of Chichester, in 1609 Bishop of Ely, 
in 16 18 Bishop of Winchester. Endless stories are pre- 
served of the kindness, charity, and the unfailing humility 
of Bishop Andrews, whom all honoured but himself. He 
is chiefly remembered now by his "Manual of Private 
Devotions," composed in his latter years, and of which the 
manuscript was constantly wet with his tears. His death 
was received as a public calamity. Archbishop Laud * 
lamented him as " the great light of the Christian world ; " 
and Milton wrote a Latin elegy upon him, which has been 
translated by Cowper. 

Near the tomb are kept a number of bosses, from the 
roof of the nave, preserved when it was pulled down. Their 

• Diary. 



4S8 WALKS IN LONDON, 

ornaments comprise the arms of Southwark, and those of 
Henry de Briton, Prior, 1462 — 1486, but the mosc curious 
is that of a painted head, with a man half-eaten. The pre- 
sent nave, on a different level to the rest of the church, 
is wholly uninteresting; the grand nave of 1469 was 
wantonly destroyed in 1831. The church tower contains 
twelve bells, of which nine are upwards of four hundred 
years old. 

Between St. Saviour's and the river stood Winchester 
House, the old palace of the Bishops of Winchester, built in 
1 107 — being, says Stow, ''a very fair house, well repaired, 
with a large wharf, and a landing-place, called the Bishop 
of Winchester's stairs." Here Cardinal Beaufort (half- 
brother of Henry IV.) celebrated the marriage of his niece, 
daughter of the Earl of Somerset, with James I. of Scotland, 
the royal poet, who had first seen and loved her from his 
prison window at Windsor, and doubted whether she was 

— " a worldly creature 
Or heavenly thing in likeness of nature." 

Bishop Gardiner — " politick Gardiner, who spared all the 
weeds, and spoiled all the good flowers and herbs,"* — lived 
here in state, with a number of pages of good family, whose 
education he superintended. It was the last household of 
the kind, for, after the Reformation, the bishops' houses were 
filled with their wives and children. Here, out of devotion 
to his patron the Duke of Norfolk, he arranged little 
banquets, at which it was arranged that Henry VIII. 
should meet the Duke's niece, Katherine Howard, then a 
lovely girl m her teens. 

• Fuller. 



i 



BANKSIDE. 459 

\j\ 1642 Winchester House was turned into a prison for 
Royalists by the Presbyterians, and amongst others Sir 
Kenelm Digby was confined there. Selden says* — 

** Sir Kenelm Digby was several times taken and let go again ; at 
last imprisoned at Winchester House. I can compare him to nothing 
but a great fish that we catch and let go again, but still he will come 
to the bait ; at last therefore we put him into some great pond 5:" 
store." 

The old Gothic hall was standing in the present century, 
but there is nothing left of the house now. It was 
Peter de Rupibus, Bishop of Winchester, who, in 1215, 
founded for canons regular the religious house which at 
the dissolution became St. Thomas's Hospital, now removed 
to Lambeth. 

Adjoining Winchester House was Rochester House, a 
residence of the Bishops of Rochester, destroyed in 1604. 

On BanJzside, the district between the Bishop of Win- 
chester's park and the spot called Paris Garden, were several 
litde amphitheatres for bear-baiting and bull-baiting, with 
other popular places of amusement. Most important of 
these was the Globe Theatre, built in the reign of Elizabeth, 
where James I. granted a patent to Shakspeare and his 
associates to play plays, " as within theire then usuall house, 
called the Globe, in the countie of Surry, as elsewhere." 
The theatre was burnt during a performance of Henry VIIL 
in 161 3, and was rebuilt in the following year. Ben Jonson 
calls it " the glory of the Bank, and the fort of the whole 
parish."! An old print represents it as like a high 
marteilo tower with little slits for windows, and a turret and 
flag at the top. 

• Table talk. + >>ee Wilkinson's " Londina Illustrata." 



460 WALKS IN LONDON, 

Paris Garden took its name from Robert de Paris, who 
leased a house and garden there from the Abbot of Ber- 
mondsey, in the reign of Richard II. It had always an 
immoral reputation, and in the time of Charles I. obtained 
the name of " Holland's Leaguer/' from an ill-working 
house established in the old manor by a woman named 
Holland, who contrived to keep the constables at bay 
by the help of the moat, which existed till 1660. The 
" Paris Garden Theatre " was in existence in the time of 
Henry VIII. Here also were " His Majesty's Bear Garden 
and Bull Ring " of " The Hope" and " The Swan." 

Gufs Hospital, on the left of the Borough High Street, 
with an entrance in St. Thomas's Street, was built by Dance 
{cb. 1773). It owes its foundation to Thomas Guy (born 
1645), son of a coal-merchant at Horsleydown, who became 
a Lombard Street bookseller. The hospital had a narrow 
escape of losing the wealth of the rich tradesman. He 
promised to marry his pretty maid, Sally, and had ordered 
various repairs to his house previous to his nuptials. Seeing 
that these were incompletely carried out, Sally, in her 
capacity of bride elect, ordered them to be properly 
finished; an assumption of authority which gave such 
offence to her betrothed that he broke off his marriage, 
and determining to remain a bachelor, built and endowed 
the hospital at a cost of ;^238,292. There is a blackened 
brass statue of the founder in the courtyard, and another in 
marble, in the chapel. 

We are now in Soufhwark, the town on the south side 
of the Thames^ " called by the Saxons," says Pennant, 
" Southverke, or the South Work." It is intersected by the 
great street called the Borough High Street^ which was the 



THE OLD INNS OF SOUTHWARK, 461 

highway between the metropolis and the southern counties, 
and by which the Canterbury pilgrimages passed out towards 
the shrine of St. Thomas k Becket. A memorial of these 
pilgrimages may be seen in a succession of ancient taverns, 
retaining their picturesque wooden galleries around their 
courtyards, with the chambers opening from them, like the 
old inns in the French towns. Of these. The White 
Hart, on the left, a Httle beyond Guy's Hospital, has a 
court surrounded by old balustraded galleries. It is 
mentioned by Shakspeare in his Henry VI. , when Jack 
Cade remonstrates with his peasant followeis, who are 
forsaking him and accepting the pardon ofiered by Bucking- 
ham and Clifford, saying — 

" Will ye needs be hanged with your pardons about your necks ? 
Hath my sword therefore broke through London gates, that you shoiild 
leave me at the White Hart in Southwark ? "— P^. //. Act IV, Sc. 8. 

The *' Grey Friars Chronicle," describing Jack Cade's re- 
bellion, says, "At the Whyte Harte in Southwarke, one 
Hawaydine, of Sent Martins, was beheddyd." A servant of 
Sir John Fastolf, named Payne, was only saved from the 
same fate by the intercession of one Robert Poynings, when 
he was sent from his master's house at Horsleydown to 
obtain the articles of the rebels' demands. The inn where 
Cade staid was burnt in 1669 and again in 1676, but was 
rebuilt in the same style, with the wooden balconies used 
in watching the open-air theatrical performances in the 
courts below, by which the taverns were made popular. 
Shakspeare's plays were probably acted in the courtyards of 
such inns, he himself being an actor. The White Hart 
is described by Charles Dickens in the " Pickwick Papers." 

The next inn. The George, has double tiers of wooden 



462 



WALKS IN LONDON 



galleries. It is described by Stow as existing in his time, 
and is mentioned as early as 1554 — 35th Henry VIII., 
when its name was the St. George. The original inn was 
burnt in 1676, but it was rebuilt in the same style. 

But the most interesting of old hostelries was the 
Tabard, mentioned even in 1598 by Stow as "the most 




The George Inn, Southwark. 



ancient of the inns of Southwark," and which had become 
for ever celebrated, when 

" Chaucer, at Woodstock, with the nightingales, 
At sixty, wrote the Canterbury tales."* 

Up to a few years before its destruction it was marked by 
an inscription, which said, ''This is the Inne where Sir 
Jeffrey Chaucer and the nine and twenty pilgrims lay in 
their journey to Canterbury, anno 1383." It was an old 

* Longfellow. 



THE TABARD. 



463 



house worthy of Nuremberg, and such as we shall never see 
again in London, with high roofs and balustraded wooden 
galleries supported upon stone pillars. A worn faded 
picture of the Canterbury Pilgrimage hung from the 
gallery in front of *' the Pilgrim's Room." The front 
towards the street was comparatively modern, having 
perished in the fire of 1676, after which, says Aubrey, "the 




In the Courtyard of the Tabard, Southwark. 



ignorant landlord or tenant, instead of the ancient sign of 
the Tabard, put up the Talbot or Dog." The ancient sign 
of the Tabard, says Stow, is " a jacket or sleeveless coat, 
whole before, open on both sides, with a square collar, 
winged at the shoulders ; a stately garment of old time, 
commonly worn by noblemen and others, both at home 
and abroad in the wars, but then (to wit, in the wars) their 



464 



WALKS IN LONDON, 



arms embroidered, or otherwise depict upon them, that every 
man by his coat of arms might be known from others." 

There was such a completely old-world character in the 
courtyard of the Tabard that, though Chaucer certainly 
never saw the inn which has been lately destroyed,''' those 
who visited it in 1873, imbued with the poem, would feel 
that the balustraded galleries, with the little rooms opening 




The Tabard, Southwark." 



out of them, and the bustling courtyard filled with waggons 
and wares, represented at least the ghost of the Gothic inn, 
built by the Abbot of Hyde in 1300 on the same site. 
They would share the sensation of Dryden, who wrote, " I 
see all the Pilgrims in the Canterbury Tales, their humours, 
their features, and their ver)^ dress, as distinctly as if I had 

* The original inn was standing in 1602. 



THE MARSHALSEA, 465 

supped with them at the Tabard in Southwark," and would 
picture the meeting which the poet describes — 

" Befel, that in that season, on a day 
In Southwark at the Tabard as I lay, 
Ready to wenden on my pilgrimage, 
To Canterbury with devout courage. 
At night was come into that hostelrv 
Well nine and twenty in a company 
Of sundry folk, by adventure yfall 
In fellowship, and pilgrims were they all, 
That toward Canterbury woulden ride." 

On the left, between King Street and Mermaid Court, 
was the prison of the Marshalsea — used for persons guilty 
of offences on the high seas or within the precincts of the 
court. The Marshal of this prison was seized and be- 
headed by the rebels under Wat Tyler in 138 1. Bonner, 
Bishop of London, was imprisoned for ten years in the 
Marshalsea for refusing to take the oath of allegiance to 
Elizabeth, and died there Sept. 5, 1569. His repartee as 
he was being led to prison is recorded : " Good-morning, 
Bishop quondam" said a wag. " Farewell, knave semper^^ 
replied Bonner. At the instigation (as he asserted) of 
Home, Bishop of Winchester, the mob gathered round him 
as he went and returned from the prison to the court. One 
said to him, "The Lord confound thee, or else turn thy 
heart." " The Lord," he replied, " send thee to keep thy 
breath to cook thy porridge." To another, saying "The 
Lord overthrow thee," he said, " The Lord make thee wise 
as a woodcock." A woman kneeled down and said, '* The 
Lord save thy Hfe. I trust to see thee Bishop of London 
again." To which he said, " Gad a mercy, good wife," and 
so passed on to his lodging.* 

SeeStrype. 
VOL. I. H H 



466 WALKS IN LONDON, 

George Wither the poet, who had been a general in 
Cromweirs army, was imprisoned at the Restoration in the 
Marshalsea for having written the satire " Abuses stript and 
whi^t," and while here wrote his best poem, " The Sliep- 
heard's Hunting." He was released some years before his 
death. Dickens, in the Preface to "Little Dorrit," de- 
scribes his search for relics of the Marshalsea — 

•' I found the outer front courtyard metamorphosed into a butter- 
shop ; and then I almost gave up every brick of the jail for lost. 
Wandering, however, down a certain Angel Court,* leading to Ber- 
raondsey, I came to Marshalsea Place, the houses in which I recognised, 
not only as the great block of the former prison, but as preserving the 
rooms that arose to my mind's eyes when I became Little Dorrit's 
biographer. . . . Whoever goes into Marshalsea Place, turning out of 
Angel Court, leading to Bermondsey, will find his feet on the very 
paving-stones of the extinct Marshalsea jail ; will see its narrow yard 
to the right and to the left, very little altered if at all, except that the 
walls were lowered when the place got free ; will look upon the rooms 
in which the debtors lived ; and will stand among the crowding ghosts 
of many miserable years." 

Connected with the prison was the Marshalsea Court — 
the seat (siege) of the Marshal of the King's Household 
" to decide difierences and to punish criminals within the 
royal palace, or on the verge thereof, which extended to 
twelve miles around it." This court was united with that 
of Queen's Bench in 1842. 

St. Georges Church, Souihwark, was built by John Price 
(1733-36) upon the site of an old church where General 
Monk was married to Anne Clarges, and where Bonner, 
the bloody bishop of London, who died in the Marshalsea, 
and Rushworth, author of the " Collections,' who died in 
the King's Bench Prison, were buried. Opposite the church 

Angel Court is now Angel Place. It is close to St. George's Church. 



SOUTIIWARK, 467 

was a palace of Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, who 
married Mary, daughter of Henry VII. A Quakers' Meet- 
ing House in St. George's, Southwark, is connected with 
the story of the Quaker persecution in the reign of 
Charles II. It is here that George Fox, the Founder of 
the Society, was attacked by soldiers with their muskets 
while he was preaching; and here that, when (1682) a 
justice of the peace commanded him in the King's name to 
come down, he repHed, " I proceed, for I am commanded 
by a higher, the King of Kings." 

Southwark Town ZT^// stands on the site of St. Margaret's 
Church, and on the open space in front — " St. Margaret's 
Hill " — the famous fair was held which was granted by 
Edward VI., and was annually opened on Sept. 7 by the 
Lord Mayor and Sheriffs riding in procession. Southwark 
Fair, which was suppressed in 1763, is commemorated by 
Hogarth. 

To the west of High Street, in Park Street, Southwark, 
is the great Brewery of Barclay, FerkiJis &> Co., founded by 
Henry Thrale, the friend of Dr. Johnson, who was his 
executor and sold the business to Messrs. Barclay and 
Perkins for ;£'i35,ooo. " We are not here," said Johnson, 
on the day of the sale, " to sell a parcel of boilers and vats, 
but the potentiality of growing rich beyond the dreams 
of avarice." Thrale's Brewery was built on the site of the 
oldest Independent or Congregational church in England, 
founded in 1616 by Henry Jacob, who migrated to 
Virginia in 1624. During the Long Parliament the Meeting 
House ventured to open its doors (January 18, 1 640-1), 
the congregation having hitherto been ** shifting from place 
to place." 



468 WALKS IN LONDON, 

The streets to the east lead into Bermondsey (Beor 
mond's-Eye — from the island property of some Saxor 
or Danish noble in the marshes of the Thames), now a 
poor crowded district chiefly inhabited by tanners. There 
was a royal country-palace here, where Henry II. resided 
with Eleanor of Aquitaine, when she first came to England, 
and where she gave birth to her second son. But no 
remains exist now either of it or of the Cluniac abbey 
founded by Aylwin Child in 1082, which became celebrated 
from its connection with a number of royal ladies. Of 
these, the first was Mary, daughter of Malcolm III. of 
Scotland, sister of Maud, wife of Henry I., and wife of 
Eustace, Earl of Boulogne. She died April 18, 1115, and 
was buried here with the inscription — 

" Nobilis hie tumnlata jacet Comitissa Maria. 
Actibus hsec nituit ; larga benigna fait. 
Regum sanguis erat ; morum probitate vigebat, 
Compatiens inopi ; vivit in arce poli." * 

The body of Queen Joanna, widow of Henry IV., who died 
at Havering-atte-Bower in 1437, rested here in state, on 
its way to the tomb which she had erected for her husband 
in Canterbury Cathedral. Katherine de Valois, widow of 
Henry V., and then wife of Owen Tudor, died here in her 
thirty-fifth year; and here Elizabeth Woodville, widow of 
Edward IV., was imprisoned by her son-in-law, Henry VII., 
in i486, and languished till her death in 1492.! By her 
touching will, made in the abbey, she says that she leaves 

• See Wilkinson's " Londina Illustrata." 

+ Katherine was buried in the tomb of Henry V. in "Westminster Abbey ; 
tlizabeth Woodville in that of Edward \W at Windsor, in a stone coffin, in 
accordance with the terms of her will — " I bequeath my body to be buried with 
the body of my lord at Windsor, according to the will of my said lord and 
without pomps entering or costly expenses done thereaboot." 



BERMONDSEY. 469 

her blessing to Elizabeth of York and her other children, 

"having no worldly goods to do the queen's grace, my 

dearest daughter, a pleasure with, neither to reward any of 

my children according to my heart and mind/* The abbey 

was surrendered in 1537 and the last abbot rewarded with 

the bishopric of St. Asaph in commendam. The greater 

part of the abbey buildings were pulled down by Sir 

Thomas Pope, founder of Trinity College at Oxford, and 

the palace of the RatclifTes, Earls of Sussex, rose upon 

their ruins. The only relics still remaining of the abbey 

are a silver alms-dish, preserved in the Church of St. Mary 

Magdalen, and the names of "Long Walk," "Grange 

Walk," &c., reminiscences of the monastic gardens and 

farm, now applied to streets of leather-dressers, leather 

dyers, horse-hair manufacturers, &c. 

Battle Bridge Wharf, on the river between Bermondsey 
and London Bridge, commemorates the town-house of the 
Abbots of Battle, and the intricacies of the wretched streets 
colled the Maze mark the labyrinth in their gardens. 



INDEX, 



Academy, Royal, i. 42, 74 

A Idernj anbury, i. 231 
Aldgate, i. 345 
Alley, Change, i. 362 

Cranborne, ii. 7 

Duck's Foot, i. 430 

Great Bell, i. 247 

Gunpowder, i, 113 

Half-Moon, i. 301 

Hope and Anchor, i. 418 

Panyer, i. 158 
Almack's, ii. 68 

Almonry, The Westminster, ii. 371 
Almshouses, Countess of Kent's, i. 217 

Emery Hill's, ii. 400 

Lady Dacre's, ii. 437 

Palmer's, ii. 306 

Sir A. Judde's, i. 295 

Sir J. Milbome's, i. 347 

Vandun's, ii. 398 
Alsatia, i. 114 
Arcade, Burlington, ii. 78 
Arch, Green Park, ii. 113 

Marble, ii. 100 
Artillery Ground, i. 303 
Astley's Amphitheatre, ii. 404 
Austin Friars, i. 277 

B. 

Bank, Child's, i. 102 

Coutts', i. 18 

of England, i. 256 

Gosling's, i. 102 

Hoare's, i. 102 
Bankside, i. 459 
Barbican, i. 272 
Bath, Cold Bath, i. 212 

Lord Essex's, i. 37 

Queen Anne's, ii. 160 

Roman, in the Strand, i. 37 
Battersea, ii. 448 
Bayswater, ii. 104 
Bedfordbury, i. 19 
Belgravia,ii xo8 



Bermondsey, {. ^69 
Bethnal Green, 1. Jiy 
Bevis Marks, i. 319 
Billingsgate, i. 422 
Blackfriars, i. 438 
Bloomsbury, ii. 163 
Boltons, the, ii. 497 

Brewery, Baiclay and Perkins's, i. 467 
Truman, Hanbury, and Buxton't, I 

314 
Bridewell, i. 116 
Bridge, Albert, the, ii. 450 

Battersea, ii. 448 

Blackfriars, i. 438 

New Chelsea, ii. 450 

London, i. 447 

Southwark, i. 434 

Waterloo, i. 474 

Westminster, ii. 40I 
Broken wharf, i. 436 
Bucklersbury, i. 250 
Buildings, Beaufort, i. aA 

Craven, i. 93 

Cripplcgate, i. 273 

Pitt's, ii. 462 

Southampton, ii. 19X 

Westmoreland, i. 264 
Bunhill i^ ields, i. 303 



Camden Town, i. 221 

Canonbury, i. 217 

Castle Baynard, i. 437 

Cartoons, the, ii.482 

Cathedral, St. George's, Roman Catholic, 
ii. 405 
St. Paul's, i. 128 

Cemetery, Bunhill Fields, i. 303 
Friends', i. 312 
Kensal Green, ii. 143 
St. George, Hanover Square, ii. 104 
St. George the Martyr, li. 187 
St. Giles in the Fields, ii. 147 

Chamber, Jerusalem, ii. 361 

Chambers, Albany, ii. 73 



INDEX. 



471 



Chambers, Crosby Hall, i. 287 

Chapel, of Chelsea Hospital, ii. 427 
Clement's Inn, i. 44 
Foundling Hospital, ii. 187 
Fulhara Palace, ii. 499 

Chapel, Grosvenor, ii. 96 
Lambe's, i. 217 
of Lambeth Palace, ii. 417 
Lincoln's Inn, i. 84 
Marlborough Gardens, ii. 53 
the Mercers', i. 243 
Moravian, i. 107^ 
Orange Street, ii. 128 
of the Pyx, ii. 353 
Rolls, i. 79 

Royal of St. James's, ii. 59 
Royal of Whitehall, ii. 217 
St. Catherine's, Regent's Park, ii. 140 
St. Catherine's, Westminster, ii. 358 
St. Etheldreda, ii. 200 
St. Job*- *«> *l*e Tower, i va. 
^i- Patrick, sono, n. ip» 
St. Peter ad Vincula, i. 490 
St. Stephen, Westminster, ii. 374 
St. Thomas of Aeon, i. 244 
Sardinian, i. 91 ^ 
Serjeants' Inn, i. 79 
Spa Fields, i. 212 

Chapter House, Westminster, ii. 347 

Charterhouse, the, i. 194 

Cheapside, i. 223 

Chelsea, ii. 425 

Chichester Rents, 1. 82 

Church, Allhallows, Barking, i. 363 
Allhallows, Bread Street, i. 324 
Allhallows the Great, i. 431 
Allhallows, Lombard Street, i. 335 
Allhallows in the Wall, i. 276 
All Saints, Fulham,ii. 497 
All Saints, Margaret Street^ ii. 148 
All Souls, Langham Place, li. 139 
Austin Friars, 1. 277 
Chelsea Old, ii. 434 
Holy Trinity, Minories, i. 4x5 
Irvingite, ii. 184 
Martyrs' Memorial, i. 213 
St. Alban, Holborn, ii. 193 
St. Alban, Wood Street, i. 229 
St. Alphege, London Wall, i. 275 
St. Andrew, Holborn, ii. 193 
St. Andrew, Wells Street, ii. 149 
St. Andrew Undershaft, i. 357 
St. Anne, Soho, ii. 132 
St. Anne in the Willows, i. 259 
St. Antholin's, i. 328 
St. Augustine, i. 326 
St. Bartholomew the Great, i. 182 
St. Bartholomew the Less, i. 189 
St. Bartholomew, by the Exchange, 

i. 429 
St. Benet, Paul's Wharf, i. 437 
St. Botolph, Aldersgate, i. 260 
St. Botolph, Aldgate, i. 347 
.St. Botolph, Bishopsgate, i. 298 
St. Bride, i. 118 



Church, St. Catherine Coleman, i. 340 
St. Catherine Cree, i. 354 
St. Clement Danes, i. 41 
St. Clement, Eastcheap, i. 332 
St. Dionis Backchurch, i. 336 
St. Dunstan in the h ast, i. 423 
St. Dunstan in the West, i. 106 
St. Dunstan, Stepney, i. 351 
St. Edmund, i. 335 
St. Ethelburga, i. 298 
St. Faith, i. 132 
St. Gabriel, i. 336 
St. George, Bloomsbury, ii. 183 
St. (Jeorge, Hanover Square, ii. 138 
St. George, Southwark, i. 466 
St. Giles, Cripplegate, i. 269 
St. Giles in the Fields, ii. 155 
St. Gregory, i. 132 
St. Helen's, Great, i. 288 
St. James, Clerkenwell, i. 209 
St. James, Garlickhithe, i. 435 
St. James, Piccadilly, ii. 71 
St. John, Clerkenwell, i. 203 
St. John the Evangelist, ii. 190 
St. John, Westminster, ii. 399 
St. Lawrence, Jewry, i. 234 
St. Leonard, Shoreditch, i. 315 
St. Magnus, i. 429 
St. Margaret, Lothbury, i. 257 
St. Margaret Pattens, i. 336 
St. Margaret, Westminster, ii. 391 
St. Martin in the Fields, ii. 2 
St. Martin, Ludgate, i. 125 
St. Mary, Abchurch, i. 331 
St. Mary, Alderraanbury, i. 231 
St. Mary Aldermary, i. 326 
St. Mary, Battersea, ii. 448 
St. Mary le Bone, ii. 142 
St. Mary le Bow, i. 232 
St. Mary at Hill, i. 424 
St. Mary, Islington, i. 217 
St. Mary, Kennington, ii. 46a 
St. Mary, Lambeth, ii. 407 
St. Mary Overy, i. 450 
St. Mary, Soho, ii. 153 
St. Mary le Strand, i. 38 
St. Mary, Whitechapel, i. 349 
St. Mary Woolnoth, i. 33^ 
St. Mary Magdalen, Old Fish Street, 

i.323 
St. Michael, i. 434 
St. Michael Bassishaw, i. 275 
St. Michael, Cornhill, i. 361 
St. Michael le Quern, i. 157 
St. Michael, Queenhithe, 1. 436 
St. Michael, Wood Street, i. 228 
St. Mildred, Bread Street, i. 324 
St. Mildred, Poultry, i. 249 
St. Nicholas Cole Abbey, i. 323 
St. Olave, Hart Street, 1. 341 
St. Olave, Old Jewry, i. 246 
St. Pancras in the Fields, ii. 143 
St. Pancras, New Road, ii. 143 
St. Paul, Covent Garden, i. 23 
St, Peter, Clerkenwell, i. 213 



473 



INDEX. 



Church, St. Peter, Comhill, i. 361 

St Peter, Paul's Whai-f, i. 43/ 

St. Saviour, Southwaik, i. 450 

St. Sepulchre, 1. iby 

St. Stephen, Coleman Street, 1. 247 

St. Stephen, Walbrook, i. 255 

St. Stephen, Westminstei, ii. 400 

St. Swithin, 1. 329 

St. Vedast, i. 22t) 

Temple, i. 63 
Churchyard, Allhallows Staining, i. 

^337 

St. Anne, SoUo, 11. 132 

St. Giles, ii. 155 

St. Giles, Cripplegate, i. 270 

St. Martin's, ii. 4 

St. Margaret, Westminster, ii. 398 

St. Matthew, Friday Street, i. 230 

St. Pancras, ii. 145 

St. Pancras in Pancras Lane, i. 242 

St. Paul's, i. 156 

St. Stephen's, i. 246 
Circus. Finsbury, i. 301 

Piccadilly, ii. 124 
Clerkenwell, i. 206 
Cloisters, Charterhouse, i. 194 

Grey Friars, i. 164 

Westminster, ii. 354 
Close, Bartholomew, i. igx 
Club, Army and Navy, ii 

Arthur's, ii. 67 

Athenaeum, ii. 48 

Heefsteak, i. 21 

Boodle's, ii. 68 

Brooks', ii. 68 

Carlton, ii. 49 

Conservative, ii. 67 

Garrick, i. 135 

Guards', ii. 49 

Kit Kat, i. 104 

Literary, ii. 51, 131 

Naval and Military, ii. 82 

New University, ii. 68 

Oxford and Cambridge, ii. 49 

Reform, ii. 48 

Travellers', ii. 48 

United Service, ii.47 

White's, ii. 69 
C >:kpit, the, ii. 223 
Coffee-house, Button's, 1,27 

Chapter, i. 156 

Don Saltero's, ii. 43X 

Gara way's, i. 362 

Jonathan's, i. 362 

Lloyds, i. 253 

Tom's, i. 27 

Will's, i. 26 

White's Chocolate, ii. 69 
Cold Harbour, i. 430 
College, Gresham, i. 296 

Heralds', i. 155 

of Physicians, i. 158 

St. Spirit and St. Maiy, i. 434 

Sion, i. 274 

of Surgeons, i. 95 



College, University, ii. 164 
Column, Duke ot York's, ii. 48 

Nelson, ii. i 

Westminster Memorial, ii. 40q 
Common, Kensington, ii. 400 
Conduit, Bayswater, i. ^'jin 

Comhill, i. 300 

Great, i. 224 

Little, 1. 224 

St. James's, ii. 49 
Convent, Augustinian, I. 277 

Black Friars, i. 438 

Carthusian, i. 192 

Cluniac, i. 468 

Crossed Friars, i. 344 

Grey Friars, i. 162 

Poor Clares, i. 417 

Whitefriars, i. 114 
Comer, Hyde Park, ii. 107 

Pie, i. 172 

Poets', ii. 235 
Cottage, Craven, ii. 499 
Court, Brick, Temple, i. ^% 

Bolt, i. 112 

Cecil, ii. 7 

Crane, i. 108 

Devereux, i. 50 

Dorset, ii. 227 

Drury, i. 39 

Falcon, i. 107 

Flower de Luce, 1. 108 

Founders', i. 256 

Fountain, Temple, i. 73 

Fox, ii. 191 

Green Arbour, i. 169 

Hare, i. 266 

Hare, Temple, i. 70 

Ingram, i. 336 

Johnson's, i. 112 

Oxford, i. 256 

Poppin's, i. 114 

St. Martin's, i. 126; ii. 128 

St. Peter's, ii. 6 

Salisbury, i. 115 

Tanfield, Temple, i. 71 

Wine Office, i. 112 

White Hart, i. 333 
Court-room, Barber- Surgeons', i.26a 
Covent Garden, i. 19 
Cripplegate, i. 268 
Cross, in Beech Lane, i. 268 

Charing, i. i 

Cheapside, i. 224 

St. Paul's, i. 151 
Crutched Friars, i. 344 
Crypt, Bow Church, i. 232 

Gerard's Hall, i. 323 

Guildhall, i. 240 

Lambeth Chapel, ii. 417 

St. James in the Wall, i. 337 

St. Michael, Aldgate, i. 345 

St. Paul's, i. 146 

St. Stephen's, Westminster, ii. 385 

Westminster Abbey, ii. 346 
Custom House, the, i. 48I 



INDEX, 



473 



Deanery, St. Paul's, i. 155 

Westminster, ii. 360 
D«cks, the, i. 418 
Domesday Book, i. 108 
Drive, the Queen's, ii. 107 



Entry, Church, i. 442 
Exchange, the Coal, i. 423 

New, i. 16 

Royal, i. 251 

Stock, i. 256 

"Wool, i. 246 
Exchequer, the, ii. aj'* 
Exhibition, Madame Tussaud's, ii. g8 



Jl'air, Bartholomew, i. 173 

Cloth, i. igo 

Milk, ii. 120 
Farm, Chalk, ii. 141 

Ebury, ii. 108 
Fields, Bonner's, i. 317 

Finsbury, i. 275 

The Five, ii. 109 

Spa, i. 212 
Fire Brigade, Metropolitan, i, 326 
Fountain, the Buxton, ii. 401 

of St. Lawrence, i. 334 

in the Temple, i. 73 

Trafalgar .~>quare, i. i 
Friars, Austin, i. 277 
Fulham, ii. 497 
Fulwood's Rents, ii. 497 

G. 

Gallery of British Artists, ii. 45 

Grosvenor, ii. 79 

National, ii. 7 

National Portrait, ii. 486 
Gate, Aldgate, i. 345 

Aldersgate, i. 258 

Bishopsgate, i. 298 

Cripplegate, i. 268 

Ludgate, i. 123 

Newgate, i. 166 

Queen Anne's, ii. 401 

Temple Bar, i. 51 

Storey's, ii. 401 
Gate House, Westminster, ii. 368 
Gateway of Essex House, i. 50 

King Street, ii. 204 

of Lincoln's Inn, i. 82 

of St. James's Palace, ii. 53 

St. John's, i. 200 

Temple, Inner, i. 61 

Temple, Middle, i. 6i 

Whitehall (Holbein's), ii. 204 

of York House, i. 14 



Gardens, Baldwin's, ii. 193 

Botanic (Chelsea), ii. 429 

Brompton Nursery, ii. 497 

of Buckingham Palace, ii. 115 

of Chelsea Hospital, ii. 428 

Cremorne, ii. 448 

of Gray's Inn, i. 100 

ot Holland House, ii. 479 

Horticultural, ii. 496 

Kensington, ii. 454 
♦ Lambeth Palace, ii. 420 

jvlarylebone, ii. Z43 

Paris, i. 460 

Privy, ii. 220 

Ranelagh, ii. 42P 

St. James's Palace, ii. 6x 

Spring, ii. 121 

Temple, i. 76 

Vauxhall, ii. 422 

Westminster College, ii, 358 

Zoological, ii. 141 
Great St. Helen's, i. 287 
Green, Kensington Palace, ii. 460 

Parson's, ii. 499 
Grey Friars, i. 162 
Grove, Lisson, ii. 142 

Westboume, ii. 104 
Guildhall, the, i. 236 



Hackney, i. 317 

Hall, Agricultural, i. 215 

Albert, ii. 453 

Copped, ii. 422 

Crosby, i. 282 

the Egyptian, Mansion House, i. X54 

Exeter, i. 28 

the Flaxman, ii. 164 

Gerard's, i. 323 

Hicks', i. 199 

Piccadilla, ii. 70 

the Welsh, i 240 

Westminster, ii. 380 
Halls of City Companies- 
Apothecaries', i. 440 

Arm >nrers', i. 247 

Barber-Surgeons', L 26a 

Brewers', i. 230 

Carpenters', i. 276 

Clothworkers', i. 337 

Coopers', L 276 

Curriers', i. 273 

Cutlers', i. 433 

Drapers', i. 257 

Dyers', i. 432 

Fishmongers', i. 445 

Goldsmiths', i. 226 

Haberdashers', i. 230 

Ironmongers', i. 339 

Leathersellers', i. 295 

Mercers', i. 244 

Merchant Tailors', i. 280 

Painter-Stainers', i. 435 

Parish Clerks', i. 435 



474 



INDEX. 



Halls of City Companies— 
Pewterers', i. 336 
Pinners', i. 279 
Saddlers', i. 242 
Skinners', i. 43? 
Stationers', i. 120 
Vintners', i. 434 
Hangman's Gains, i. 418 
Haymarket, the, ii. 46 
Highbury Barn, i. 216 
Hill, College, i. 433 

Constitution, ii. 113 

Dowgate, i. 432 

Fish Street, i. 424 
Hill, Hay, ii. 84 

Primrose, ii. 141 

Snow, ii. 201 

St. Lawrence Poultney, i. 430 
Hockley in the Hole, i. 212 
Holbom, ii. 188 
Horse Guards, the, ii. 221 
Hospital, Bethlem, ii. 404 

Bridewell, i. 116 

Chelsea, ii. 425 

Christ's, i. 162 

Consumptive, ii. 496 

Foundling, the, ii. 185 

Guy's, i. 460 

King's College, i. 95 

St. Bartholomew's, i. 188 

St. Giles', ii. 154 

St. Katherine's, ii. 140 

St. Thomas's, ii. 406 
HoundsdStch, i. 318 

House, of the Abbots of Westminster, ii. 
360 

of Alderman Beckford, ii. 152 

of Alderman Boydell, i. 242 

of Alderman Wood, ii. 152 

Alford, ii. 452 

Ancaster, i. 91 

Apsley, ii. 109 _^ 

Archbishop's, ii. 424 

Arlington, ii. 114 

Arklow, ii. 102 

Ashburnham, ii. 367 

Bacon, i. 265 

Bangor, i. 114 

of James Barry, ii. 148 

Bath, ii. 82 

Beaufort, ii. 431 

Berkeley, ii. 79 

of Miss Berry, ii. 82 

of Bloomfield, i. 247 

Bourdon, ii. 88 

Bridgewater, ii. 61 

of Edmund Burke, ii. i^X 

Burlington, ii. 73 

Burnet, i. 206 

of Dr. Bumey, ii. 129 

of Bvron (his birtbpiace), ii. 99 

Cambridge, ii. 82 

Camden, ii. 460 

Canonburjr, i. 219 

Carlisle, ii. 151 



House, Carlton, ii. 47 

of Thomas Carlyle, ii. 447 

of Lord Castletcagh, 11. 50 

of Chantrey, ii. 82 

Chesterfield, ii. 94 

of Sir R. Clayton, i. 246 

Cleveland, ii. 50 

ofLordClive, ii. 87 

of Commons, ii. 387 

of Cosway, ii. 51 

of Cowley, i. 106 

of Mrs. Cromwell, ii. 226 

of the De la Poles, i. 430 

Devonshire, ii. 79 

of Earls of Devonshire, i. 301 

Dorchester, ii 106 

of Drayton, i. 106 

Drury, i. 92 

of I >ryden, ii. 130, 134 

Dudley, ii. 106 

Durham, i. 15 

East India, i. 360 

Falconberg, ii. 152 

Fife, ii. 219 

of Flaxman, ii. 149 

Foley, ii. 139 

of Sir P. Francis, ii. 50 

of Fuseli, ii. 6 

of Gainsborough, ii. 51 

Gloucester, ii. 82 

of Goldsmith, i. 169 

of Gondoraar, i. 348 

Goring, ii. 114 

Gresham, i-,25i, 273 

Grosvenor, ii. 91 

of Nell Gwynne, ii. 50 

of lians Jacobsen, i. 348 

Harcourt, ii. 99 

Haunted, in Berkeley Square, ii. 87 

Hertford, ii. 98 

of Hogarth, ii. 127 

Holland, ii. 463 

of John Hunter, ii. 127 

of Lady Huntingdon, i. 21ft 

Kensington, ii. 462 

Kent, ii. 451 

of Kosciusko, ii. 127 

Lansdowne, ii. 84 

Lauderdale, i. 266 

of the Duke of Leeds, ii. 49 

Leicester, ii. 125 

of Linacre, i. 329 

Lindsey, i. 91 

Lindsey (Chelsea), ii. 446 

London, i. 266 

of Lords, ii. 388 

of Lord Macaulay, ii. 463 

Marlborough, ii. 52 

of Sir T. Alayerne, ii. 446 

Lord Mayor's Banqueting, ii. 100 

of Milton in St. Bride's, i. 119 

of Milton in Petty France, ii. 402 

of Lord Mohun, ii. 130 

Montagu, ii. 97, 224 

of Lady MaryWortley Montagu, ii. 99 



INDEX, 



475 



House, of Sir T. More^ ii. 431 

of Napoleon III., li. 68 

Newcastle, i. go 

of Sir I. Newton, ii. 129 

Norfolk, ii. 50 

Northumberland, i. 6 

Northumberland, of the Earls of, i. 
344 

of Sir R. Peel, ii. 221 

Peterborough, ii. 424 

of Lord Peterborough at Parson's 
Green, ii. 499 

of Sir P. Pindar, i. 299 

Portsmouth, i. 94 

Powis, ii. 88 

of Princess Amelia, ii. 99 

of the Duke of Queensberry, ii. 8a 

of .Sir J. Reynolds, ii. 6, 127 

Rochester, i. 459 

of G. Romney, ii. 99 

of Roubiliac, ii. 6 

of the first Royal Academy, ii. 4a 

of the Royal Society, i. 109 

Salisbury, i. 19 

Schomberg, ii. 51 

Shaftesbury, i. 264 

Shakspeare's, i. 266 

Somerset, i. ^^ 

Southampton, ii. 191 

Stafford, ii. 65 

Stratheden, ii. 452 

Thanet, i. 264 

of Sir J. Thomhill, ii. 6, 127 

of Turner, at Chelsea, ii. 427 

of Vanbrugh, ii. 220 

of General Wade, ii. 78 

Wallingford, ii. 221 

of Horace Walpole, ii. 87 

of Sir R. "Walpole, ii. 69 

of Izaak Walton, i. 106 

White, the, ii. 151 

of Sir R. Whittington, i. 273, 341 

Winchester, i. 278, 458 

Winchester (at Chelsea), ii. 431 

Worcester, i. 28 

York, i. II 

of Count Zinzendorf, i. 446 
Houses of Parliament, ii. 385 
Hoxton, i. 317 



I. 

Infirmary, the, of Westminster, ii. 357 
Inns of Court and Chancery — 

Barnard's, i. 98 

Clifford's, i. 79 

Furnival's, i. 98 

Gray's, i. 98 

Lincoln's, i, 8a 

L\on's, i. 40 

Scroope's, i. 98 

Serjeants', i. 79 

Staple, i. 96 

Temple, Inner, i. 6l 



Inns of Court and Chancery-* 

Temi)le, Middle, i. 71 

Thavies', i. 98 
Institution, Royal, ii. 79 

United Service, ii. 2x9 
Irvinsrite Church, ii. 184 
Island, Duck, ii. 119 

Thorney, ii. 228 
Islington, i. 215 



Kennington, ti. 404 
Kensington Gore, ii. 453 
King's Jewel House, ii. 37a 
Knightsbridge, ii. 451 



Lambeth, ii. 404 
Lane, Basing, i. 323 
Billiter, i. 345 
Birchin, i. 335 
Botolph, i. 423 
Canonbury, i. 217 
Carter, i. 442 
Chancery, i. 78 
Clement s, i. 335 
Cloak, i. 433 
Cock, 1. 172 
Cree, i. ^56 
DistaflF, 1. 323 
Drury, i. 92 
Eldenesse, i. 159 
Elms, ii. 105 
Fetter, i. 107 
Field, i. 123 
Golden, i. 272 
Gravel, i. 348 
Gray's Inn, ii. 191 
Gutter, i. 227 
Hog ii 153 
Ivy Bridge, 1. 18 
Kirion, i. 327 
Lad, i. 232 
Lewknor's, ii. 160 
Maiden, i. 27 
Mark, i. 340 
Middle Temple, i. 6i 
Millord, i. 48 
Mincing, i. 337 
Nightingale, i. 347 
Pancras, i. 242 
Petticoat, i. 348 
Philpot, i. 336 
Pudding, i. 429 
Rood, i. 336 
St. Anne's, ii. 371 
St. John's, i. 199 
St. Martin's, ii. 6 
St. Pancras, i. 327 
Seacoal, i. 336 
Seething, i. 349 
Shire, i. 104 



476 



INDEX. 



Lane, Shoe, i. ixj 

Soper, i. 242 

Strand, i. 37 

Suffolk, i. 430 ^ 

Three Cranes, i. 434 

Tyburn, ii. 83 

Warwick, i. 158 

Water, i. 440 
Library, British Museum, ii. 182 

Charterhouse, i. 196 

Christ's Hospital, i. 165 

Granville, ii. 182 

Guildhall, i. 241 

King's, ii. 181 

Lambeth, ii. 412 

Lincoln's Inn, i. 85 

Middle Temple, i. 76 

Royal Society, ii. 76 

Society of Antiquaries, ii. 78 

Westminster Abbey, ii. 356 

Westminster School, ji. 366 

Williams', i. 272 
Lincoln's Inn, i. 82 
Lincoln's Inn Fields, i. 85 
Lions of Landseer, ii. 2 
Little Britain, i. 260 
Lloyd's, i. 253 
Lodge, Airlie, ii. 463 

Argyll, ii. 463 

Holly, ii. 463 

Lowther, ii. 452 
London Stone, i. 329 
London Wall, i. 273 
Long Acre, ii. 134 
Lord's Cricket Ground, ii. 142 
I,othbury, i. 256 
Ludgate, i. 123 

M. 

Mansion House, the, i. 254 
Manufacture of Chelsea China, ii. 448 
Manufacture of Doulton Faience, ii. 4^2 
Market, Billingsgate, i. 422 

Clare, i. 44 

Hungerford, i. ti 

iimes's, ii. 47 
eadenhall, i. 352 

Newgate, i. 161 

Oxford, ii. 148 

Shepherd's, ii. 83 

Smithfield, i. 172 
Marylebone, ii. 142 
Mayfair, ii. 83 
Maypole, the, in the Strand, i. 38 

Undershaft, i. 354 
Meeting House, Quakers', i. 333 
Memorial, Albert, ii. 454 

Westminster Scholars', ii. 400 
Mint, the Royal, i. 418 
Monastery, Hlackfriars, i. 438 
Monument, the, i. 424 
Moorfields, i. 301 
Museum, the British, ii. 165 

City, i. 241 



Museum, College of Surgeons, i. 95 
Don Saltero's, ii. 431 
The India, ii. 495 
London Missionary, i. 312 
Soane, i. 86 

South Kensington, ii. 476 
United Service, ii. 219 



N. 

National Gallery, ii. 7 
New Law Courts, the, i. 78 



O. 

Old Bailey, i. 168 

Old Chelsea Bun House, ii. 429 

Old Jewry, i. 246 

Opera, Italian, ii. 46 

Office, Admiralty, ii. 22X 

Colonial, ii. 223 

East India, ii. 223 

Foreign, ii. 223 

Home, ii. 223 

Lost Property, ii. 220 

Police, ii. 223 

Record, i. 108 

War, ii. 49 
Offices of Messrs. Cubitt, ii. 191 



P. 

Paddington, ii. 142 

Palace, Bridewell, i. 117 
Buckingham, ii. 114 
Chelsea, ii 430 
Fulham, ii. 490 
Kennington, ii. 404 
Kensington, ii. 450 
Lambeth, ii. 410 
St. James's, ii. 53 
Savoy, i. 29 
of the Tower, i. 415 
Westminster, New, ii. 377 
Westminster, Old, ii. 375 
AVhitehall, ii. 202 

Pall Mall, ii. 43 

Park, Hattersea, ii. 450 
Bellsize, ii. 163 
Green, ii. 113 
Hyde, ii. 105 
Marylebone, ii. 14a 
Regent's, ii. 139 
St. James's, ii. 115 
Westbourne, ii. 104 

Passage, Jerusalem, i. 208 
L;insdowne, ii. 84 
Sweedon's, ii. 273 

Pentonville, i. 220 

Petty France, ii. 402 

Place, Argyll, ii. 137 
Bedford, ii. 184 
Canonbury, i. 210 



INDEX, 



4?; 



356 



Placp, Connaflgbt, H. ictt 

Duke's, 1. 3ig 

Ely, ii. iq6 _ 

Hamilton, ii. 83 

Langham, ii. 139 

Palsgrave, 1. 51 

Park, ii. 69 

Portland, ii. 139 

Rathbone, ii. 149 

St. James's, ii. 69 

Stratford, ii. 100 

Wardrobe, i. 442 

\Aaterloo, ii. 47 

Windsor, i. 264 
Piccadill)', ii. 70 
Post Office, the, i. 220 
Priory, Christchurch, 

Holy Trinity, i. 356 

St. Bartholomew's, i. 180 

St. John's, i. 199 
Prison, Llerkenwell, i. 211 

Cold Bath Fields, i. 2X2 

Fleet, i. 120 

the Lollards, ii. 419 

Marshalsea, i. 465 

Millbank, ii. 424 

Newgate, i. 166 

Pentonville, i. 220 

Tothill Fields, ii. 400 
Poultry, i. 249 



Q. 

Quadract, the, u. 124 
Queenhitbe, i. 435 



R. 



Ratcliffe Highway, i. 
Record Office, i. 108 



419 



t6d 



Restaurant, Pontack's, 
Ring, the, ii. 108 
Row, Bolton, ii. 84 

Budge, i. 328 

Butchers', i. 41 

Canon, ii. 227 

Cheyne, ii. 447 

Church, i. 340 

Cleveland, ii dt 

Cooper's, i. 344 

Paternoster, i. 156 

Rochester, ii. 400 

Rotten, ii. 107 
Road, Brompton, ii. 476 

Campden Hill, ii. 463 

Commercial, i. 350 

Edgeware, ii. 102 

Goswell, i. 265 

Horseferry, ii. 400 

Theobald's, ii. 189 ^ 

Tottenham Court, ii. 160 

Tyburn, ii. 100 
Rolls Chapel, i. 79 
Knokery, the, ii. 158 
Rooms, Willis's, ii. 68 



St, Giles's, ti. 154 
St. John's Wood, ii. 141 
St. Paul's Cathedral, t. T28 
Sanctuary of St. Martin's le Grand, L 
222 

of Westminster, ii, 369 

of Whitefriars, i. 114 
Savoy, the, i. 29 
School, Archbishop Tenison's, iu 127 

Charterhouse, i. 195 

City of London, i. 231 

Grey Coat, ii. 400 

Mercers', i. 434 

Radcliffe, i. 351 

St. Paul's, i. 153 

Westminster, ii. 364 
Seldam, the, i. 234 
Serpentine, the, ii. 108 
Sessions House, Old Bailey, i. i68 

Clerkenwell, i. 208 
Seven Dials, the, ii. 159 
Shadwell, i. 419 
Shop-iront, the oldest, i. 253 
Shoreditch, i. 314 
Smithfield, i. 172 
Soane Museum, i. 86 
Society of Antiquaries, ii. 77 

of Arts, i. 17 

Astronomical, ii. 74 

Chemical, ii. 74 

Charity Organizaticm, i. 1$ 

Chemical, ii. 74 

Geological, ii. 74 

Linnaean, ii. 74 

Royal, ii. 74 
Soho, ii. 150 
Soraers Town, 1. 2?l 
Southwark, i. 460 
Spitalfields, i. 312 
Square, Audley, ii. 94 

Bedford, ii. 164 

Belgrave, ii. 109 

Berkeley, ii. 87 

Blandford, ii. 97 

Bloomsbury, ii. i8j 

Bryanston, ii. 97 

Cavendish, ii. 98 

Charterhouse, i. 191 

Cold Hath, i. 2ia 

Crosby, i. 287 

Dorset, ii. 97 

Finsbury, i. 301 

Golden, ii. 137 

Gordon, ii. 184 

Gough, i. 112 

Grosveuor, ii. 89 

Hanover, ii. 138 

Leicester, ii. 125 

Manchester, ii. 98 

Montagu, ii. 98 

Myddelton, i. 214 

Onslow, ii. 496 

Portman, ii. 96 



478 



INDEX. 



Square, Prebend, i. 217 

Printing House, i. 443 

Red Lion, ii. 189 

Russell, ii. 184 

St. James's, ii. 49 

St. John's, i. 203 

Soho, ii. 150 

Southampton, ii. 183 

Spital, i. 314 

Tavistock, ii. 164 

Trafalgar, ii. 1 

Trinity, i. 367 

Vincent, ii. 400 
Statue of Achilles, ii. 107 

of Queen Anne, i. 137 ; n. 402 

of Lord George Bentinck, ii. 99 

of G. Canning, ii. 401 

of Charles I., 1. 3 

of Charles II., Chelsea Hospital, ii. 

425 
of Charles II. by Gibbons, i. 232 
of Charles II. at the Mansion House, 

»• 255 
of Sir R. Clayton, ii. 407 
of Lord Clyde, ii. 48 
of the Prince Consort, ii. 201, 454 
of Captain Coram, ii. 185 
of William, Duke of Cumberland, ii. 

99 
of Edward VI., i. 164 ; ii. 407 
of Queen Elizabeth, i. 107 
of Sir John Franklin, ii. 48 
of George I., ii. 129 
of George III., ii. 46 
of George IV., ii. 2 
of Sir H. Havelock, ii. 2 
of Lord Herbert of Lea, ii. 49 
of James II., ii. 219 
of the Duke of Kent, ii. 139 
of Melancholy and Madness, ii. 405 
of Sir H. Myddelton, i. 217 
of Sir C. Napier, ii. 2 
of Lord Nelson, ii. i 
of George Peabody, i. 279 
of Sir R. Peel, i. 223 
of Henry Peto, i. 98 
of William Pitt, ii. 138 
of Kichard I., ii. 391 
of Sir Hans Sloane, ii. 429 
of Queen Victoria, i. 232 
of Wellington, Hyde Park Comer, ii. 



of"w. 



ellington. Royal Exchange. 
250 

of William III., ii. 49 

ofWilliamlV., i. 332 

of the Duke of York, ii. 48 
Stangate, ii. 406 
Staple Inn, i. 96 
Stepney, i. 350 
Strand, the, i. 5 
Street, Addle, i. 229 

Albemarle, ii. 79 

Aldersgate, i. 258 

Arlington, ii. 69 



Street, Ashby, 1. 213 

Audley, North, ii. 96 

Audley, South, ii. 94 

Baker, ii. 98 

Basinghall, New, i. 275 

Bath, Great, i. 213 

Bennet, ii. 69 

Berkeley, ii. 84 

Bishopsgate, i. 282 

Bloomsbury, ii. 162 

Bond, ii. 78 

Borough, High, i. 460 _ 

Bow, Covent Garden, i. 26 

Bread, i. 324 

Bridge, Westminster, ii. 40a 

Broad, i. 276 

Brook, ii. 94 

Brooke, li. 192 

Brvdges, i. 19 

Bull and Mouth, i. 259 

Burleigh, i. 27 

Bury, ii. 68 

Cannon, i. 323 

Carey, i. 95 

Castle, ii. 148 

Cato, ii. 90 

Cecil, i. 19 

Chenies, ii. 164 

Chandos, i. 19, 27 

Charles (Berkeley Square), ii. i 

Charles (Drury Lane), ii. 160 _^ 

Charles (Grosvenor Square), ii. 

Charles (St. James's), ii. 49 

Church, ii. 447 

Clarges, ii. 82 

Cockspur, ii. 45 

Coleman, i. 246 

Compton, ii. 150 

Cork, ii. 78 

Cornhill, i. 360 

Coventry, ii. 124 

Cranbourne, ii. 134 

Crown, ii. 153 

Curzon, ii. 82 

Cutler, i. 318 

Dean, ii. 150 

Delahay, ii. 227 

Denzil, i. 44 _ 

Devonshire, i. 30X 

Dover, ii. 79 

Downing, ii. 223 

Dudley, ii. 159 

Duke (Aldgate), i. 347 

p!'ke (St. James's), li. 68 

Jfei lell, ii. 160 

Essex, i. 48 

Exeter, i. 27 

Falcon, i. 261 

Farringdon, i. 123 

Fenchurch, i. 335 

Fish, Old, i. 323 

Fleet, i. loi 

Fore, i. 273 

Francis, ii. 164 

Friday, i. 230 



INDEX, 



i79 



Street, Garrick, W. 135 
Gerard, ii. 130 
Grosvenor, ii. qi 
Giltspur, i. 172 
Gower, ii. 164 
Gracechurch, i. 333 
Great George, ii. 401 
Gresham, i. 232 
Grub, i. 273 
Half Moon, ii. 82 
Harley, ii. 99 
Hart, i. 341 
Haymarket, ii. 46 
Holies, i. 44 

Holies (Cavendish Square), ii. 99 
Holywell, i. 39 
Homer, ii. 91 
Hosier, i. 172 
Houghton, i. 24 
Howard, i. 48 
Howland, ii. 162 
James, ii. 47 
Jermyn, ii. 70 
Jewin, i. 266 
Jewry, i. 347 
John (Adelphi), i. 17 
King, i. 235 

King (Westminster), ii. 225 
Kingsgate, ii. 189 
King William, i. 333 
Knightrider, i. 324 
Leadenhall, i. 354 
Lime, i. 336 
Lombard, i. 334 
Long, ii.67 
Long Acre, ii. 134 
Macclesfield, ii. 132 
Margaret, ii. 148 
Market, ii. 47 
Middlesex, i. 348 
Milk, i. 231 
Milton, i. 273 
Monkwell, i. 262 
Montague, ii. 184 
Monmouth, ii. 159 
Mount, ii. 89 
Museum, ii. 165 
Newgate, i. 162 
Newport, ii. 135 
Norfolk, i. 47 
Old, i. 260 
Orchard, ii. 97 
Oxford, ii. 100 
Panton, ii. 47 
Portsmouth, i. 95 
Portugal, i. 95 
Queen, u 242; it 434 
Queen, Grea* \. 90 
Redcross, i. 208 
Regent, ii. 124 
St. Andrew's, ii. 159 
St. George's, i. 41Q 
St. 7;imes's, ii. 67 
St. Marv Axe, i. 35* 
Salisbury, i. 19 



Street, Seymour, ii. q8 

Silver, i. 261 

Skinner, i. 312 

Southampton, i. 19 

Stangate, ii. 406 

Streatham, ii. 164 

Suffolk, ii. 45 

Surrey, i. 48 

Sutton, ii. 151 

Tavistock, i. 19 

Thames, Lower, i. 420 

Thames, Upper, i. 430 

Thrograorton, i. 257 

Threadneedle, i. 280 

Tower, Great, i, 363 

Upper, i. 217 

Villiers, i. 13 

Vine, ii. 399 

W ardour, ii. 149 

Warwick, ii. 45 

Watling, i. 326 

Wells, ii. 149 

Wentworth, i. 349 

Wild, Great, i. 92 

Wigmore, ii. 08 

Wimpole, ii. 98 

Winchester, Great, i. 297 

Windmill, Great, ii. 124 

Wood, i. 227 

Wych, i. 45 

York, ii. 402 
Sundials, of the Temple, i. 76 

of Lincoln's Inn, i. 83 



Tabernacle, Whitefield's, ii. i6i 
Tattersall's, ii. 451 
Tavern, Angel, i. 215 

Angel (St. Giles's), ii. 157 

Bell, i. 59 

Bell, Old, ii. 193 

Bible, i. 104 

Black Jack, i. 95 

Blue Boar, ii. 190 

Blue Pig, ii. 190 

Bow, ii. 157 

Cheshire Cheese, i. 112 

Cock, i. 105 

Cock (in Hackney), i. 317 

Cross Keys, i. 199 

Czar's Head, i. 367 

Devil, i. 103 

Dolly's Chop House, i. 158 

Llephant, i. 337 

Four Swans, i. 295 

George, i. 461 

Green Dragon, i. 295 

Hummums, Old, i. 21 

Mermaid, i. 230 

Oxford Arms, i. 159 

Pillars of Hercules, ii. 112 

Queen's Head, i. 340 

Red Cow, i. 418 

Running Footman, ii. 88 



48o 



INDEX, 



Tavern, Sir Hug:h Myddelton, i. ai4 

Star and Garter, ii. 51 

Tabard, i. 462 

Thatched House, ii. 67 

Three Nuns, i. 348 

Three Tuns, i. 423 

Waterman's Arms, i. 419 

White Conduit House, i. 219 

White Hart, i. 461 
Temple, the, i. 61 
Temple Bar, i. 51 
Terrace, Adelphi, i. 16 

Richmond, ii. 225 
Thames Tunnel, i. 419 
Theatre, the, i. 315 

Bankside, i. 459 

The Curtain, i, 315 

Drury Lane, i. 94 

The Duke's, i. 115 

The Globe, i. 459 
. Red Bull, i. 213 

Sadler's Wells, i. 214 

St. James's, ii. 68 

Salisbury Court, i. 115 
Times Printingf Office, i. 443 
Tower, Canonbury, i. 218 

Hill, i. 367 

of London, i. 368 

of Montfiquet, i. 117 

Royal, i. 327 

of St. Mary Somerset, i. 436 

Victoria, ii. ^77 
Town, Camden, 1. 221 

Kentish, i. 221 

Somers, i. 221 
Treasury, the, ii. 223 
Trinity House, the, i. 417 
Tyburn, ii. loi 
Tyburnia, ii. 104 



University, New London, ii. 78 



V. 

Vauxhall, it. 422 
Viaduct, Holbom, ii. 201 
Villa, St. Dunstan's, ii. 142 

W. 

Walbrook, i. 255 
Walk, Artillery, 1.311 

Bird Cage, ii. 122 

Cheyne, ii. 429 
Wall ol London, i. 270, 27$ 
Wapping, i. 418 
Ward, Portsoken, i. 347 
Wardrobe, the King's, i. 432 

the Queen's, i. 327 
Watergate ol York House, i. 13 
Well, Bagnigge, i. 214 

the Clerks', i. 2it 

Crowder's, i. 271 

Sadler's, i. 214 

St. Bride's, i. 108 

St. Clement's, i. 43 

Skinners', i. 212 
Westminster Abbey, ii. 228 
Wharf, Battle Bridge, i. 469, 

Botolph, 423 
Whetstone Park, ii. 190 
Whitechapel, i. 349 
Whitefriars, i. 114 
Whitehall, ii. 202 

Y. 

Yard, Belle Sauvage, i. 124 
Coal, ii. 160 

Dean's (Westminster), ii. 363 
Glass House, i. 443 
Ireland, i. 443 

Little Dean's (Westminster), ii. 364 
Palace, New, ii. 378 
Palace, Old, ii. 390 
Playhouse, i. 272, 443 
Red Bull, i. 213 
Scotland, ii. 220 
Tilt, ii. 122 
Tokenhouse, i« S57 



END OP VOL. 



WALKS IN LONDON 

VOL. II 



" Out of monuments, names, wordes, proverbs, traditions, private recordes and 
evidences, fragments of stories, passages of bookes, and the like, we doe save and 
recover somewhat from the deluge of Time." 

Lord Bacon. A dvaTice of Learning. 

" They who make researches into Antiquity, may be said to passe often through 
many dark lobbies and dusky places, before they come to the Aula lucis, the great 
hall of light ; they must repair to old archives, and peruse many moulded and 
moth-eaten records, and so bring light as it were out of darkness, to inform the 
present world what the former did, and make us see truth through our ancestors' 
eyes. 

y. Howel. Londinopolis. 

" I'll see these things ! — They're rare and passing curious — 
But thus 'tis ever; what's within our ken, 
Owl-like, we blink at, and direct our search 
To farthest Inde in quest of novelties ; 
Whilst here, at home, upon our very thresholds, 
Ten thousand objects hurtle into view. 
Of Int'rest wonderful." 

Old Play. 



CONTENTS OF VOL. II. 



CHAP. PAGB 

I. TRAFALGAR SQUARE AND THE NATIONAL GALLERY . I 

II. THE WEST-END 43 

III. REGENT STREET AND REGENT'S PARK , , . . I24 

rV. BY OXFORD STREET TO THE CITY I48 

V. WHITEHALL 202 

VI. WESTMINSTER ABBEY— 1 228 

VII. WESTMINSTER ABBEY — II 321 

VIII. WESTMINSTER 374 

IX. LAMBETH 4O4 

X. CHELSEA 424 

XI. KENSINGTON AND HOLLAND HOUSE 45 1 

XII. SOUTH KENSINGTON 476 



CHAPTER I. 

TRAFALGAR SQUARE AND THE NATIONAL 
GALLERY. 

LET us find ourselves again at Charing Cross, which 
forms the south-eastern angle of Trafalgar Square, 
a dreary expanse of granite with two granite fountains, 
intended to commemorate the last victory of Nelson. Its 
northern side is occupied by the miserable buildings of the 
National Gallery; its eastern and western sides by a 
hideous hotel and a frightful club. Where the noble 
Jacobian screen of Northumberland House (which was so 
admirably adapted for a National Portrait Gallery) once 
drew the eye away from these abominations by its dignity 
and beauty, a view of the funnel-roof of Charing Cross 
Railway Station forms a poor substitute for the time- 
honoured palace of the Percy's ! In the centre of the 
square is a Corinthian pillar of Devonshire granite, 145 
feet in height, by W. Railto7i, erected in 1843. It sup- 
ports a statue of Nelson by E. H. Baily^ R.A., a very 
poor work, which, however, does not much signify, as it can 
only be properly seen from the top of the Duke of York's 
column, which no one ascends. The pedestal of the 
column is decorated by reliefs. 

VOL. II. B 



2 WALKS IN LONDON. 

North. The Battle of Nile by Woodington. 

South. The Death of Nelson by Carew. 

IVest. The Battle of St. Vincent by Watson and Woodington. 

East. The Bombardment of Copenhagen by Ternouth. 

The noble lions at the foot of the column were added by 
Sir E. Landseer in 1867. Only one of them was modelled : 
a slight variation in the treatment adapted the others to 
their pedestals. Their chief grandeur lies in their mighty 
sinrplicity. 

At the south-west angle of the square is a statue of Sir 




One of Landseer's Lions. 



C. S. Napier by Adams ; at the south-east angle a statue of 
Sir Henry Havelock by Behnes. On a pedestal at the 
north-west corner is an equestrian statue of George IV. by 
Chantrey, intended to surmount the Marble Arch when it 
stood in front of Buckingham Palace. The corresponding 
pedestal is vacant, and likely to remain so : there has never 
been a pendant to George IV. 

On the east side of Trafalgar Square is its one ornament. 
Here, on a noble bisement, approached by a broad flight 
of steps, rises the beautiful portico of the Church of St. 



ST. MARTIN rN THE FIELDS. 3 

Martin in the Fields. It is the masterpiece of Gibbs 
(1721 — 26), and is the only perfect example of a Grecian 
portico in London. The regular rectangular plan on which 
Trafalgar Square was first laid out was abandoned simply 
to bring it into view; yet, in 1877, the Metropolitan Board 
of Works, for the sake of giving uniformity to a new street, 
seriously contemplated the destruction of the well-graded 
basement to which it owes all its beauty of proportion, 
and which is one of the chief features of a Greek portico. 
However, Parliament happily interfered, and the portico 



" Beautiful for situation, elegant in proportion, and perfect in con- 
struction, it is precisely the kind of building that the angle of Trafalgar 
Square requires. It is thoroughly in its place, is in harmony with all its 
surroundings, and lends more grace than it receives to ' the finest site 
in Europe.' From whatever point it is seen, it impresses the beholder 
as a work of art, impelling him to draw nearer and examine it in detail, 
and unlike many other architectural structures it does not disappoint 
upon examination." — Morning Post, Feb., 1877. 

The building of St. Martin's is commemorated in the 
lines of Savage — 

" O Gibbs ! whose art the solemn fane can raise, 
Where God delights to dwell, and man to praise." 

But its portico is its best feature, and the effect even of this 
is injured by the tower, which seems to rise out of it. The 
sides of the church are poor ; '' in all," as Walpole says, 
"is wanting that harmonious simplicity which bespeaks a 
genius." The vane on the handsome steeple bears a crown, 
to show that this is the royal parish. In its upper story is 
preserved a " sanctus bell " from the earlier church on this 



4 WALKS IN LONDON. 

site ; it was rung at the point when the priest said *' Holy, 
Holy, Holy, Lord God of Sabaoth," that the Catholic 
population outside might share in the feeling of the 
service. 

The existence of a church here is mentioned as early as 
1222. Henry VHI. was induced to rebuild it by the 
annoyance which he felt at the funerals constantly passing 
his windows of Whitehall on their way to St. Margaret's, 
and his church, still really "in the Fields," to which a 
chancel was added by Prince Henry in 1607, became a 
favourite burial-place in the time of the Stuarts. It may 
be called the artists' church, for amongst those interred 
here were Nicholas Hiliard, miniature-painter to Elizabeth, 
1619 ; Paul Vansomer, painter to James I., 1621 ; Sir John 
Davies the poet, author of " Nosce teipsum,'* so much ex- 
tolled by Hallam and Southey, 1626; Nicholas Laniere the 
musician, 1646 ; Dobson, the first eminent portrait-painter 
of English birth, called "the English Vandyke," 1646; 
Nicholas Stone the sculptor, 1647; and Louis Laguerre, 
1721. The Hon. Robert Boyle (1691), the religious philo- 
sopher, author of many theological works, was buried here, 
and his funeral sermon was preached by Bishop Burnet, 
who was his intimate friend. Two of the tombs from the 
ancient church, those of Sir Thomas Mayerne, physician to 
James I. and Charles L, 1655 — 5^' ^^•^ ^^ Secretary 
Coventry, 1686, are preserved in the vaults of the present 
edifice. The register of the church records the baptism 
of the great Lord Bacon, born hard by at York House, 
in 1 56 1. It has been said that Prince Charles Edward 
renounced the religion of his forefathers here.* 

• Walpo'e's Letters to Sir Horace Mann. 



ST. MARTIN IN THE FIELDS. 5 

Amongst those who were buried in the churchyard was 
(Nov. 15, 16 1 5) the beautiful Mrs. Anne Turner, who was 
hanged at Tyburn for her part in the murder of Sir Thomas 
Overbury, and who, " having been the first person to bring 
yellow starched ruffs into popularity, was condemned by 
Coke to be hang'd in her yellow Tiffiny ruff and cuffs," 
the hangman also having his bands and cuffs of the same, 
" which made many to forbear the use of that horrid starch, 
till it at last grew generally to be detested and disused." 
After he had lain in state, the murdered body of Sir 
Edmund Berry Godfrey * was buried in this churchyard in 
1679, with an immense public funeral, at the head of which 
walked seventy-two clergymen of the Church of England, 
in full canonicals ; John Lacy, the dramatist, was buried here 
in 1681 ; Sir Winston Churchill, father of the great Duke 
of Marlborough, in 1688; George Farquhar, the comedy- 
writer and friend of Wilkes, in 1707 ; and Lord Mohun, 
killed in duel with the Duke of Hamilton, in 17 11. 
In 1762 Hogarth and Reynolds here followed Roubiliac to 
his grave, which was near that of Nell Gwynne, who died 
of an apoplexy in her house in Pall Mall in 1687, being 
oqjy in her thirty- eighth year. She left an annual sum of 
money to the bell-ringers which they still enjoy. Arch- 
bishop Tenison, who had attended her death-bed, preached 
her funeral sermon here with great extolling of her virtues, 

• Macaulay and others write the name Edmundsbury. But in the cloisters of 
Westminster Abbey there is a monument to a brother of Sir Edmund, where he 
is designated as Edmundus Berry Godfrey. The best authority, however, is Sir 
Edmund's father. The Diai\y of Thomas Godfrey of Lidd, in Kent, says, " My 
wife was delivered of another son the 23rd of December, 1621, who was christened 
the 13th January, being Sunday. Hi« godfather was my cousin John Berrie, 
his other godfather my faithful loving friend and my neighbour sometime in 
Greek Street, Mr. Edmund Harrison, the king's embroiderer. They named mj 
■on Edmund Berrie, the one's name, and the other's Christian name." 



6 WALKS IN LONDON. 

a fact which, repeated to Queen Mary II. by the desire of 
his enemies to bring him into discredit, only drew from her 
the answer, " I have heard as much. It is a sign that the 
unfortunate woman died penitent ; for if I can read a man's 
heart through his looks, had she not made a pious and 
Christian end, the doctor would never have been induced 
to speak well of her." 

The parish of St. Martin's, now much subdivided, was 
formerly the largest in London. Burnet speaks of it in 
1680 as "the greatest cure in England," and Baxter tells 
how its population consisted of 40,000 pefsons more than 
could find room in the church. The labyrinthine alleys 
near the church, destroyed in the formation of Trafalgar 
Square, were known as " the Bermudas; " hence the reference 

in Ben Jonson — 

" Pirates here at land 
Have their Bermudas and their Straights in the Strand." 

Ej>. to E. of Dorset. 

In the time of the Commonwealth St. Martin's Lane was 
a shady lane with a hedge on either side. It was open 
country as far as the village of St. Giles's. In a proclama- 
tion of 1546, Henry VIII. desires to have "the games of 
Hare, Partridge, Pheasant and Heron," preserved from the 
Palace of Westminster to St. Giles's in the Fields. In 
Faithorne's Map of London, 1658, St. Martin's Lane is the 
western boundary of the town. At one time the Lane was 
the especial resort of artists, and in one of its entries, St. 
Peter's Court, was the first house of the Royal Academy. 
Sir James Thornhill lived in the Lane, at No. 104 ; Sir 
J. Reynolds lived opposite May's Buildings, before he 
moved to Leicester Square ; Roubiliac lived in Peter's 



THE NATION A I GALLERY, 7 

Court in 1756; Fuseli at No. 100 in 1784; and the 
interior of a room in No. 96 is introduced by Hogarth 
in the " Rake's Progress." * Ceal Court, on the left of 
St. Martin's Lane, commemorates the old house of the 
Cecils, created Earls of Salisbury in 1605, and Cranbourne 
Alley took its name from their second title. 

The ambition of London tradesmen might justly feel 
encouraged by the almost European reputation which was 
obtained in his own day by Thomas Chippendale, a cabinet- 
maker of St. Martin's Lane, and which has not diminished, 
but increased, since his death. He published here, in 1752, 
that exceedingly rare .work, the " Gentleman and Cabinet 
Makers' Director." 

The north of what is now Trafalgar Square is the place 
where the king's hawks were kept in the time of Richard IL 
Sir Simon Burley is mentioned as keeper of the fal- 
cons "at the meuset near Charing Cross." The site was 
occupied by the Royal Stables from the time of Henry 
VHL to that of George IV., when they gave place to the 
National Gallery, built 1832 — 38 from designs of W, Wilkins^ 
R.A. The handsome portico of the Prince Regent's palace 
of Carlton House has been removed hither, and in spite 
of the wretched dome above it, if it were approached by 
steps like those of St. Martin's, it would be effective : as 
it is, it is miserable.! The, till lately, fine view from the 

• See Rev. W. G. Humphry's " History of the Parish of St. Martin's in the 
Fields." 

t The word mew was applied by falconers to the moulting of birds : it is the 
French word mtie, derived from the Latin mutare, to change. 

t ihe national Gallery is open to the public on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednes- 
days, and Saturdays : on Thursdays and Frida3's it is open to students only. The 
hours of admission are from lo to 5 from November to April, and from 10 to 6 in 
May, June, July, August, and the first fortnight in ~ eptember. During the last 
two weeks of September and the whole of October the Gallery is closed. 



8 WALKS IN LONDON, 

portico has been utterly ruined by the destruction of 
Northumberland House. 

" This unhappy structure may be said to have everything it ought 
not to have, and nothing which it ought to have. It possesses windows 
without glass, a cupola without size, a portico without height, pepper- 
boxes without pepper, and the finest site in Em ope without anything 
to show upon it." — All the Year Round. 1862. 




Northumberland House— from the National Gallery. 



The National Collection of pictures originated in the 
purchase of Mr. Angerstein's Gallery on the urgent 
advice of Sir George Beaumont, who added to it his own 
collection of pictures, in 1824. It has since then been 
enormously increased by donations and purchases. A 
sum of £iQ 000 is annually allotted to the purchase 
of pictures. The contents of the gallery were rehung in 



THE NATIONAL GALLERY, g 

1876, when many new rooms were opened, which allow an 
advantageous arrangement of the pictures, but are full of 
meretricious taste in their upper decorations, and of tawdry- 
colour injurious to the effect of the precious works of art 
they contain. The collection (according to the numbers 
attached to the Rooms) begins with the specimens of the 
British school \ but alas ! the curators are only beginning to 
realise the truth of Ruskin's advice that — 

"It is of the highest importance that the works of each master 
should be kept together ; no great master can be thoroughly enjoyed but 
by getting into his humour, and remaining long enough under his influ- 
ence to understand his whole mode and cast of thought." 

It is impossible to notice all the pictures here : they will 
be found described in the admirable catalogues of Mr. 
Wornum which are sold at the door. But " in a picture 
gallery," as Shelley says, " you see three hundred pictures 
you forget for one you remember," and the object of the 
following catalogue is to notice only the best specimens of 
each master deserving attention, or pictures which are im- 
portant as portraits, as constant popular favourites, or for 
some story with which they are connected. Such works as 
may be considered chefs-d'oeuvre^ even when compared with 
foreign collections, are marked with an asterisk. When the 
painters are first mentioned the dates of their birth and 
death are given. 

** A fine gallery of pictures is like a palace of thought." — Hazlitt. 

" The duration and stability of the fame of the old masters of paint- 
ing is sufficient to evince that it has not been suspended upon the 
slender thread of fashion and caprice, but bound to the human heart by 
every chord of sympathetic approbation." — Sir J. Reymolds. 

" Painting is an intermediate somewhat between a thought and a 
thing. ' ' — Coleridge. 



10 WALKS IN LONDON. 

At the foot of the Staircase on the left are — 

Statue of Sir David Wilkie, 1785— 1841, by S. jfoseph—Yns pallet is 
inserted in the pedestal. 

Bust of Thomas Stothard, 1755 — 1834, Weekes. 

Bust of W. Mulready, 1796 — 1863, Weekes. 

Relief of Thetis issuing from the sea to console Achilles for the loss 
of Patroclus— 2". Banks. 

Troilus and Cressida, painted in 1806 hy John Opie, 1761 — 1807. 

Manto and Tiresias, painted by Henry Singleton^ ll^d — 1839. 

The Collection is supposed to begin in the room farthest 
from the head of the Staircase. We may notice (beginning 
on the left) in — 

Room I. 

430. E. M. Ward. Dr. Johnson waiting neglected for an audience 
in the ante-room of Lord Chesterfield. 

* 604. Sir E. Landseet, 1802 — 1873. " Dignity and Impudence " — 
a bloodhound and a Scotch terrier looking out of the same kennel. 

449, Alexajider Johnston, Tillotson administering the sacrament to 
Lord and Lady William Russell at the Tower on the day before his 
execution. 

432. E. M. Ward. The South Sea Bubble, a Scene in Change- 
Alley in 1720 — a picture full of excitement and movement. 

* 62 1 . Rosa Bonheur. The Horse Fair — a repetition from a larger 
picture. 

810. Charles Poussin (Modem French School). Pardon Day on the 
fete of Notre Dame de Bon Secours at Guingamp in Brittany — a multi- 
tude of peasants in costume, in a sunlit wood. 

616. E. M. Ward. James II. receiving the news of the landing of 
WilUam of Orange in the palace of Whitehall, 1688. 

425. J. R. Herbert. Sir Thomas More with Margaret Roper 
v/atching the monks of the Charterhouse led to execution from his 
prison window. 

620. Frederick R. Lee. A Rivej with low-lying banks : the cattle 
by T. S. Cooper. 

\11. Thomas Webster. A Dame's School — full of nature and charm. 

410. Sir E. Landseer. *' Low Life " and " High Life " — two dogs. 

615. W. P. Frith. The Derby Day, 1856 — a gaudy and ugly, but 
popular picture. 



THE ENGLISH SCHOOL. it 

411. Sir E. Landseer. "Highland Music" — an old piper inter- 
tupting five dogs at their supper with his bagpipes. 

609. Sir E. Landseer. " The Maid and the Magpie " — the story 
which was made the subject of Rossini's Opera, the " Gazza Ladra." 
447. E. W. Cooke. Dutch Boats in a Calm. 
422. Daniel Maclise, 18 11 — 1870. The Play-Scene in Hamlet. 

* 608. Sir E. Landseer. "Alexander and Diogenes" — a group of 
dogs. 

* 606. Sir E. Landseer. " Shoeing." 

Room II. (turning left). 

369. Joseph Mallard William Turner, 1775—1851. The Prince of 
Orange landing at Torbay, 1688. 

407. Clarkson Stajtjield,i']()2, — 1867. Canal of the Giudecca, Venice. 

397. Sir Charles Eastlake, 1 793 — 1865. Christ lamenting over 
Jerusalem. 

688. James Ward, 1769 — 1859. A Landscape with Cattle — painted 
in emulation of the Bull of Paul Potter at the Hague, at the suggestion 
of Benjamin West. 

374. R. P. Bonington, 1801 — 1828. The Piazzetta of St. Mark's at 
Venice. 

394. William Mulready, \'j%(i — 1863. Tipsy Men returning from a 
Fair. 

452. John Frederick Herring, 1 794 — 1865. " The Frugal Meal " — 
an admirable specimen of this great horse-painter. 

898. Sir Charles Eastlake. Lord Byron's Dream — a beautiful Greek 
landscape. 

388. Thomas Unvins, i-jSz—i^^T. " Le Chapeau de Brigand "—a 
little girl who has dressed herself up in a costume found in a painter's 
studio during his absence. 

* 600. Joseph Laurens Dyckmans (Flemish School). The Blind 
Beggar — bequeathed by Miss Jane Clarke, a milliner in Regent Street. 

404. C. Stanfield. Entrance to the Zuyder Zee, Texel Island. 

412. Sir E. Landseer. The Hunted Stag. 

Room III. 

340. Sir Augustus Callcott, 1779— 1844. Dutch Peasants returning 
from Market. 

689. John Crome, "Old Crome," the Norwich Painter, 1769 — 1821. 
Mousehold Heath, near Norwich. 

338. William Hilton, 1786— 1 839. The meeting of Eleazar and 
Rebekah — beautiful in colour, but without expression. 



12 WALKS IN LONDON, 

897. y. Crome. The Chapel Fields at Norwich. 
327. John Constable, I'j'jd — 1837. The Valley Farm. 

121. Benjamin West, 1738 — 1820. Cleombrotus banished by his 
father-in-law, Leonidas II. of Sparta. 

" How do you like West ? " said I to Canova. ** Comme fa." " Au 
moins,^^ said I, ^^ il compose hien.'''' ^^ Non, monsieur,''^ S3\A Canova, 
" il met des modeles en groupes." — Haydon's Autobiography. 

130. y. Constable. The Com Field. 

300, yohn Hoppner, 1 759— 18 lO. Portrait of William Pitt the 
Prime Minister. 

894. Sir David Wilkie, 1785— 1841. The Preaching of John 
Knox before the Lords of the Congregation, June 10, 1559. 

345. Sir A. Callcott. The Old Pier at Littlehampton. 

813. Turner. Fishing Boats in a stiff breeze, ofif the coast. 

* 99. D. Wilkie. The Blind Fiddler — a charmingly dramatic pic- 
ture, painted for Sir G. Beaumont. 

126. Benjamin West. Pylades and Orestes brought as victims 
before Iphigenia — one of the earliest and best pictures of the master. 

122. D. Wilkie. The Village Festival. 

922. Sir Thomas Lawrence, 1769— 1830. A Child with a Kid. 
241. SirD. Wilkie. The Parish Beadle. 

785. Sir T. Lawrence. Portrait of Mrs. Siddons, bequeathed by 
her daughter. 

119. Sir George Beaumont, 1753 — 1827. A Landscape in the 
Ardennes, with Jacques and the Wounded Stag, from " As You 
Like It." 

120. Sir William Beechey, 1 753 — 1839. Portrait of Joseph NoUe- 
kens the Sculptor. 

317. Thomas Stothard, \1^l — 1834. A Greek Vintage. 

171. John Jackson, 1778 — 1831. Portrait of Sir John Soane, the 
architect of the Bank of England. Jackson was the son of a tailor, 
whose genius for art was awakened by seeing the pictures at Castle 
Howard. 

370. Turner, Venice, from the sea. 

371. Turner. " Lake Avernus " — quite imaginary. 

372. Turner. The Canal of the Giudecca, Venice. 

183. Thomas Phillips, 1770—1845. Portrait of Sir David Wilkie 
in his 44th year. 

Room IV. 

Is entirely devoted to Sketches by Turner. Here are all the sketches 
in brown for the " Liber Studiorum," executed in 1807 in imitation of 



THE ENGLISH SCHOOL. 13 

the " Libei Veritatis " of Claude. Norham Castle, and the Devil's 
Bridge, near Andermatt, are perhaps the best. The other sketches are 
often mere indications of form, or splashes of colour, but in both the 
most salient points are given. Those of Venice will bring its sun- 
illumined towers and glistening water most vividly to the mind : 
. those of Rome are heavier, and less characteristic. 

* 41. The Battle of Fort Rock, in the Val d'Aosta, painted in 18 15 
— a tremendous struggle of the elements above harmonizes with the 
battle below. 

* 35. Edinburgh from the Calton Hill — a noble drawing ; the castle 
and town are seen in the golden haze of a summer sunset. 

560. Chichester Canal — a very powerful though unfinished sketch 
ia oils. 

Room V. 

682. Benj'afnin Robert Haydon, 1 786 — 1 846. Punch and Judy, 01 
Life in London. The scene is in the New Road, near Marylebone 
Church. 

229. Gilbert Stuart, \l^^ — 1 828. Portrait of Benjamin West. 

792. Thomas Barker, 'Ci\Q'£>2,'Ca. painter, 1769 — 1847. A Woodman 
and his Dog in a storm. 

131. Benjamin West. Christ healing the sick in the Temple. 
Greatly admired when first exhibited. 

188. Sir T. Lawrence. Portrait of Mrs. Siddons — presented by her 
friend Mrs. Fitzhugh. 

217. Gilbert Stuart. Portrait of William Woollett the engraver. 

793. John Martiuy 1 789 — 1854. The Destruction of Herculaneum 
aad Pompeii. 

Passing, in the entrance, a group of " Hylas and the 
Water Nymphs," hy John Gibson, we reach — 

Room VI., entirely devoted to the great works of Turner, 
which he bequeathed to the nation. Amongst so many, 
attention may be especially directed to — 

* 524. The Fighting Temeraire tugged to her Last Berth. She 
was an old 98, captured at the battle of the Nile, and, commanded by 
Captain Harv'ey, was the second ship in Lord Nelson's division at the 
battle of Trafalgar, 1805. She was broken up at Deptford in 1838. 

516. " Childe Harold's Pilgrimage," an imaginary Italian Land- 
scape — the bridge is that of Narni ; second period 01" the master. 



14 WALKS IN LONDON. 

505. The Bay of Baiae. 

511. The Distant View of Orvieto, 1830. 

508. Ulysses deriding Polyphemus (1829) — a gorgeous golden and 
crimson sunrise. The sky is perhaps the finest Turner ever painted : 
the picture is a grand specimen of his second manner. 

* 492. Sunrise on a Frosty Morning. 
483. London from Greenwich. 

* 497. Crossing the Brook — the valley of the Tamar looking tow^ards 
Mount Edgecumbe. 

496. Bligh Sand, near Sheerness. 
458. Portrait of Himself, c. 1802. 

* 472. Calais Pier, 1803. In point of date this is the earliest 
masterpiece of the artist. It is a grand picture, but the shadows are 
exaggerated in order to render the lights more powerful. 

501. The Meuse, an Orange-Merchantman going to pieces on the bar. 
480. The Death of Nelson at the Battle of Trafalgar, Oct. 21, 1805. 
476. The Shipwreck — fishing boats coming to the rescue. 1805. 
470. The Tenth Plague of Egypt. 

495. Apuleia in search of Apuleius — a beautiful hilly landscape. 
528. The Burial ofWilkie. Sir David Wilkie died June I, 1841, 
on board the Oriental Steamer off Gibraltar, and was buried at sea. 

Room VII. 

* 112. William Hogarth, id^^^j — 1764. His own portrait. 

The feigned oval canvas which contains this characteristic portrait 
rests on volumes of Shakspeare, Milton, and Swift, the favourite 
authors of the artist : by the side is his dog Trump. The picture, 
executed in 1749, remained in the hands of Hogarth's widow till her 
death in 1 789, when it was bought by Mr. Angerstein. 

* 307. Sir Joshua Reynolds, 1723 — 1 792. The Age of Innocence. 
129. Sir T. Lawrence. Portrait of John Julius Angerstein the 

Banker, and the collector of the Angerstein Gallery, M'hich was the 
foundation of the National Gallery. 

162. Sir y. Reynolds. The Infant Samuel— a picture frequently 
repeated by the artist. 

79. Sir y. Reynolds. The Graces decorating a terminal figure of 
Hymen. The " Graces " are Lady Townshend, Mrs. Gardener, and 
Mrs. Beresford, daughters of Sir William Montgomery. 

754. Sir y. Reynolds. Portraits of the Rev. George Huddesford and 
Mr. John Codrington Warwick Bampfylde : the latter holds a violin. 

684. Thomas Gainsborough, 1 727 — 1 788. Portrait of Ralph 
Schomberg, Esq. 



THE ENGLISH SCHOOL, 15 

♦ 113 — 118. W.Hogarth. The " Marriage a la Mode," or Profligacy 
in High Life. 

Hogarth was "a writer of comedy with a pencil, rather than a 
painter. If catching the manners and follies of an age Uvtng as they 
1 .•■f, if general satire on vices and ridicules, familiarised by strokes ol 
nature, and heightened by wit, and the whole animated by proper and 
just expicssions of the passions, be comedy, Hogarth composed come- 
dies as much as Moliere ; in his Marriage a la ISIode there is even an 
intrigue carried on throughout the piece. . . . Hogarth had no model 
to follow and improve upon. He created his art ; and used colours 
instead of language. He resembles Butler, but his subjects are more 
universal, and amidst all his pleasantry, he observes the true end ot 
comedy, reformation ; there is always a moral to his pictures. Some- 
times he rose to tragedy, not in the catastrophe of kings and heroes, 
but in marking how vice conducts insensibly and incidentally to misery 
and shame. He warns against encouraging cruelty and idleness in 
young minds, and discerns how the different vices of the great and 
the vulgar lead by various paths to the same unhappiness."-— Walpole, 
Anecdotes of Painting. 

No. 113. "The Marriage Contract." The gouty father of the 
noble bridegroom points to his pedigree, as his share of the dowry, 
while the rich merchant who is father of the bride is engrossed by the 
money part. The betrothed couple sit side by side on a sofa, utterly 
indifferent to one another, and two pointers chained together against 
their will are emblematic of the ceremony they have been engaged in. 
The attentions which young Counsellor Silvertongue is bestowing upon 
the bride already indicate the catastrophe. 

114. "Shortly after Marriage." The young wife, who has spent 
the night in playing cards, is seated at the breakfast table. Beyond 
is seen the card-room with neglected candles still burning. The 
husband comes in, and flings himself down listlessly after a night's 
debauch : a little dog sniffs at a lady's cap in his pocket. The old 
steward leaves the room disconsolate, with a packet of bUls. 

" The Visit to the Quack Doctor." The young libertine quarrels 
with a quack and a procuress for having deceived him. The girl, who 
is the cause of the dispute, stands by with indifference. 

1 16. " The Countess's Dressing-Room." By the death of her father- 
in-law the wife has become a countess, and the child's coral on the back 
of her chair shows that she is a mother. But she is still plunged in 
the most frivolous dissipation. Her morning reception is crowded, and 
amongst those present we recognise Silvertongue, the young lawyer, 
lounging on a sofa. He presents her with a ticket for a masquerade, 
where the assignation is made which leads to the last two scenes. 



I6 WALKS IN LONDON, 

117. "The Duel and Death of the Earl." The Earl discovers the 
infidelity of his wife, and, attempting to avenge it, is mortally wounded 
by her lover. The Countess implores forgiveness from her dying hus- 
band ; while the lover tries to escape by the window, but is arrested by 
the watch. The scene, a bedroom, is illuminated from a wood-fire. 

118. "The Death of the Countess." The guilty wife takes poison 
in the house of her father, the London Alderman, upon learning that 
her lover has been executed by " Counsellor Silvertongue's last dying 
speech," which lies upon the floor by the empty bottle of laudanum. 
The old nurse holds up the child to its dying mother. The apothecary 
scolds the servant who has procured the poison ; the doctor retires, as 
the case is hopeless. The father, with a mixture of comedy and 
tragedy, draws off the rings of the dying lady. A half-starved hound 
takes advantage of the confusion to steal a " brawn's head " from the 
table. 

78. Sir y. Reynolds. The Holy Family — a graceful but most 
earthly group. Charles Lamb says, " For a Madonna Sir Joshua has 
here substituted a sleepy, insensible, unmotherly girl." 

789. T. Gainshoroitgh. Mr. J. Baillie of Ealing Grove, with his 
wife and four children. 

80. Gainsborough. The Market Cart. 

681. Sir J. Reynolds. Portrait of Captain Orme, standing leaning 
on his horse. 

311. Gainsborough, Rustic Children. 

* 760. Gainsborough. Portrait of Edward Orpin, the parish clerk of 
Bradford in Wiltshire. 

182. Sir J. Reynolds. Heads of Angels — being studies from the 
head of Frances Isabella Ker Gordon, daughter of Lord and Lady 
WiUiam Gordon. 

107. Sir y. Reynolds. The Banished Lord — a head. 

312. George Romney,\i2i\ — 1802. Lady Hamilton as a Bacchante. 
"The male heads of Romney were decided and grand, the female 
lovely ; his figures resembled the antique ; the limbs were elegant and 
finely formed ; the drapery was well understood. Few artists since 
the fifteenth century have been able to do so much in so many different 
branches . ' ' — Flaxman. 

*iii. Sir y. Reynolds. Portrait of Lord Heathfield, ob. 1790. 
One of the noblest portraits of the master. The gallant defender of 
Gibraltar stands before the rock, which is shrouded in the smoke of the 
siege. He is represented grasping the key of the fortress, " than which 
imagination cannot conceive anything more ingenious and heroically 
characteristic." ♦ 

• Barry. 



THE ENGLISH SCHOOL. 



17 



This portrait carries out to the full the theory of the master — «* A 
single figure rnust be single, and not look like a part of a composition 
with other figures, but must be a composition of itself." 

" We cannot look at this picture without thinking of the lines given 
by Burns to his heroic beggar — 

* Yet let my country need me, with EUiott to lead me, 
I'd clatter on my stumps at the sound of a drum ' — 

lines that may have been written while Reynolds was painting the 
picture." — Leslie and Taylor's Life of Sir J. Reynolds. 

188. Richard Wilso7t, 1713 -1782. The Villa of Maecenas at TivoH. 

128. Sir y. Reynolds. Portrait of the Rt. Hon. W. Wyndham, 
Secretary at War during Fox's administration. 

Room VIII. 

725. Joseph Wright of Derby, 1734— 1797. An Experiment with 
an Air Pump — upon a PaiTot. 

306. Sir J. Reynolds. Portrait of Himself. 

133- John Hoppner, 1759— 1810. Portrait of " Gentleman Smith " 
the actor. 

325. Sir T. Lawrence. Portrait of John Fawcett the Comedian. 

144. Sir T. Lawrence. Portrait of Benjamin West the Painter, in 
his 71st year — executed for George IV. 

675. W.Hogarth. Portrait of his sister, Mary Hogarth, 1 746. 

302, 303. R. Wilson. Scenes in Italy. 

* 723. J. S. Copley, 1737— 1815.* The Death of Major Peirson, 
killed in an engagement with the French at St. Helier, Jersey, Jan. 6, 
1 78 1. The figures introduced in the picture, which represents the 
carrying the body of Major Peirson out of the fight, are all portraits. 

143. Sir J. Reynolds. Equestrian portrait of Field Marshal Lord 
Ligonier, who fought at the Battle of Dettingen, and is bmied in 
Westminster Abbey. Sir Joshua coiild not paint a horse. 

100. J. S. Copley. The Fatal Seizure of the great Lord Chatham in 
the House of Lords, April 7, 1778. The fifty-five peers represented 
are all portraits. 

Outside, on the stairs. 

786. B. R. Hay don, 1786— 1846. The Raising of Lazarus. Most 
spectators will feel this, intended to rival the Lazarus of Sebastian del 
Piombo, to be a hideous picture ; yet who that has read in " Haydon'c 
Autobiography" the story of the hopes, and struggles, and faith in which 

• The father of the Chancellor Lord Lyndhurst. 
VOL. IL C 



r8 WALKS IN LONDON. 

it was painted, can look on it without the deepest interest ? After it 
was finished he wrote, " If God in his mercy spare that picture, my 
posthumous reputation is secured." 

795. G. Cruikshank. " The Worship of Bacchus," or the Results of 
Drunkenness. 

We now turn to the Foreign School of Painting. 

Room IX. (beginning on the left), chiefly devoted to the 
works of Claude and Poussin. 

62. Nicolas Poussin, 1 594 — 1 665. A Bacchanalian Dance. 

N. Poussin was a native of Normandy, Court Painter to Louis XIV. 
" No works of any modem have so much the air of antique painting as 
those of Poussin. Like Polidoro, he studied the ancients so much that 
he acquu-ed a habit of thinking in their way, and seemed to know 
perfectly the actions and gestures they would use on every occasion." 
— Sir. y. Reynolds. 

*3I. Caspar Poussi7t, 1611 — 1675. A Landscape — from the Colonna 
Palace at Rome. The (entirely subservient) figures introduced represent 
Abraham and Isaac going to the sacrifice. One of the best works of 
the artist. 

164. Nicolas Poussin. The Plague at Ashdod. 

42. N. Poussin. A Bacchanahan Festival — painted for the Due de 
Montmorenci. 

" The forms and characters of the figures introduced are purely ideal, 
borrowed from the finest Greek sculptures, more particularly from the 
antique vases and sarcophagi ; the costumes and quality of tne draperies 
are of an equally remote period ; the very hues and swarthy com- 
plexions of these fabled beings, together with the instruments of sacri- 
fice and music — even the surrounding scenery — are altogether so unlike 
what any modem eye ever beheld, that in contemplating them the mind 
is thrown back at once, and wholly, into the remotest antiquity." — Sir 
y. Reynolds. 

* 61. Claude GeUe de Lorraine, 1600— 1682. A Landscape of 
exquisite finish. This little picture belonged to Sir George Beaumont, 
and was so much valued by him that, after his magnificent gift of his 
pictures to the nation, he requested to be allowed to keep it for hfe, 
and always carried it about with him. 

161. G. Poussin. An Italian Landscape — from the Colonna Palace. 

6. Claude. Landscape with figures, supposed to represent David 
and his companions at the Cave of Adullam. One of the soldiers has 
just brought the water from the well of Bethlehem. The figures are 



THE FOREIGN SCHOOLS, 19 

stiff, the quiet landscape glorious. This picture, painted for Agostino 
Chigi in 1658, is called the " Chigi Claude." 

12. Claude. Landscape with figures — shown, by the inscription on 
the picture, to be intended to represent the marriage festival of Isaac 
and Rebekah, painted 1648. It is an inferior repetition, with some 
differences,, from " Claude's MiU " in the Palazzo Doria at Rome. 

*479. y.M. W. Turner, 1775— 1851. The Sun rising in a Mist. 
The position of this beautiful picture results from a conceit in the will 
of the artist, who bequeathed it, with its companion, to the Nation, on 
condition of their being permitted to occupy their present position 
between the two great Claudes. 

478. Turner. Dido building Carthage— painted in the style of, and 
in rivalry with, the Claude by its side. 

* 14. Claude. The Embarkation of the Queen of Sheba— a glorious 
effect of morning sunlight on quivering sea-waves. This picture, 
painted for the Due de Bouillon in 1648, is known as '* the Bouillon 
Claude." No one can compare it with the picture by its side without 
feeling that the Enghsh painter has failed in his rivalry. 

198. Philippe de Champagne, 1602— 1674. Three portraits of 
Cardinal Richelieu, painted for the sculptor Mochi to make a bust 
from. Over the profile on the right are the words — De ces deux 
profiles ce cy est le meilleur. 

36. Caspar Poussin. The Land-Storm. 

2. Claude. Pastoral Landscape. The figures represent the recon- 
ciliation of Cephalus and Procris — painted in 1645. 

30. Claude. A Seaport, with the Embarkation of St. Ursula — 
painted for Cardinal Barberini in 1646— a lifeless specimen of the master. 

903. Hyacinthe Rigaud, 1657 — 1743. Portrait of Cardinal Fleury. 

206. Jean Baptiste Greuze, 1 725 — 1805. Head of a Girl. 

Room X. 

200. Giovanni Battista Salvi, called, from his birthplace, Sasso- 
ferrato, 1 605 — 1685. The Madonna in Prayer. 

93, 94. Annibale Carracci. Silenus gathering Grapes, and Pan 
teaching Bacchus to play on the Pipes. These pictures are thoroughly 
Greek in character. Lanzi speaks of the Pan and Bacchus as rivalling 
the designs of Herculaneum. 

22. Giovanni Francesco Barbiere, called, from his squint, Guercino, 
1592— 1666. Angels bewailing the dead Christ— from the Borghese 
Gallery. 

127, 163. — Antonio Canal, called Canaletto, 1697— 1768. Views in 
Venice. 



20 WALKS IN LONDON. 

174. Carlo Maratti, 162^ — 1 713- Portrait of Cardinal Cerri. 

271. Guido Reni, 1575 — 1642. " Ecce Homo." 

88. Annibale Carracci. Erminia taking refuge with the Shepherds 
• — from the story in Tasso. 

21. Crista foro Allori, commonly called Bronzino, 1577 — 1 62 1. 
Portrait of a Lady. 

246. jfacopo Pacchiarotto, b. 1474. Madonna and Child. 

84. Salvator Rosa, 1615 — 1673. Landscape, with Mercury and the 
Dishonest Woodman. 

" Salvator delights in ideas of desolation, solitude, and danger ; im- 
penetrable forests, rocky or storm-lashed shores ; in lonely dells 
leading to dens and caverns of banditti, alpine ridges, trees blasted by 
lightning or sapped by time, or stretching their extravagant arms 
athwart a murky sky, lowering or thundering clouds, and suns shorn 
of their beams. His figures are wandering shepherds, forlorn travellers, 
wrecked mariners, banditti lurking tor their prey, or dividing the 
spoils . " — Fjiseli. 

214. Guido Reni. The Coronation of the Virgin — the hard outlines 
indicate an early period of the master. 

645. Mariotto Albertinelli, 1471 — 1515. Madonna and Child. 

177. Guido Reni. The Magdalen — often repeated by the master. 

704. Bronzino. Portrait of Cosimo L, Duke of Tuscany. 

193. Guido Reni. Lot and his Daughters leaving Sodom. 

29. Federigo Barocci, 1 5 28 — 1612. A Holy Family called "La 
Madonna del Gatto," from the cat which is introduced in the picture. 

268. Paul Veronese. The Adoration of the Magi — painted in 1573 
foi the Church of San Silvestro at Venice, where it remained till 1855. 

740. Sasso/erratu. Madonna and Child — a picture interesting as 
having been presented by Pope Gregory XVI. to the town of Sasso- 
ferrato, at once his own native place and that of the artist, G. B. 
Salvi. 

196. Guido Reni. Susannah and the Elders — from the Palazzo 
Lancellotti at Rome. 

228. Jacopo da Ponte, commonly called Bassano from his native 
place, 1510 — 1592. Christ expelling the Money-Changers. 

Room XI. (the Wynn Ellis Gift). 

978. Vandevelde. Sea Piece — artists wiU observe the invariable 
lowness of the horizon in the works ot this admirable master. 

974. Quintin Matsys, the "Smith ot Antwerp," 1466— 1530. 
The Misers — a theme often repeated by the master ; this edition is 
unpleasant, but full ot power. 



THE FOREIGN SCHOOLS. 21 

970. Metsu, b. 16 1 5. The Drowsy Landlady. 
930. School of Giorgione, The Garden of Love. 
966. Vander Cappelle, c. 1650. Shipping. 
990. Ruysdael. A Wooded Landscape, very fine. 
937. Canaletto and Tiepolo. The Scuola di San Rocco at Venice, 
with the procession on Maundy Thursday. 

J 005. Paul Potter, 1 62 5 — 1 654. An old Grey Hunter. 
952. David Tenters, 1610 — 1694. A Village Fete. 

950. Teniers the Elder, 1582 — 1649. Conversation. 

1019. Greuze. Head of a Girl. 

loio. Dir}; Van Deelen, c. 1670. An "Apotheosis of Renaissance 
Architecture." 

1020. Greuze. Head of a Girl. 
959. Jan Both. Landscape. 

951. Teniers the Elder. Plapng at Bowls. 
940. Canaletto. Ducal Palace, Venice. 

986. Vandevelde. A Calm at Sea, with a vessel saluting. 

957. Jan Both, 1610 — 1656. Landscape and Cattle. 

* 961. Albert Cuyp, 1605 — 1691. Milking-time at Dort — a most 
beautiful work of the master. The contrasts between Cuyp and 
Hobbema prove with what different eyes artists can behold the same 
type of scenery. 

965. Vander Cappelle. River Scene with a State Barge. 

looi. Van Hiiysum. Flowers. 

*' Jan Van Huysum's bright and sunny treatment entitles him to the 
name of the Correggio of flowers and fruits." — Kugler. 

928. A. Pollajiiolo. Apollo and Daphne — a small picture, full of 
quaint conceit and richness of colour. 

929. Raffaelle [?) Madonna and Child. 

943. Memling, c. 1439 — 1495. His own Portrait. 

Room XII. The Dutch School. 

*'It was the subjects of common life around him, and the widely- 
syjread demand for such pictures which arose from all classes, which 
furnished the chief occupation of the Dutch painter, and that to such 
an extent that, considering the limited dimensions of the land itself, 
and the comparatively short time in which those works were produced, 
we are equally astonished with their number as with their surpassing 
excellence. ... In all these pictures, whatever their class of subjects, 
two qualities invariably prevail ; the most refined perception of the 
picturesque, and the utmost mastery of technical skill. Animated, 
also, by the instinctively right feeling which told the painter that a 



az WALKS IN LONDON. 

small scale of size was best adapted to the subordinate moral interest 
of such subjects, we find them almost exclusively of limited dimensions. 
These, again, were best suited to the limited accommodation which 
the houses of amateurs afforded, and thus we trace the two principal 
causes which created in Holland what may be called the Cabinet 
School of painting." — Kugler. 

805. D. Tenters. An old Woman in her cottage peeling a pear. 

* 896. Gerard Terburg, 1 608— 1 68 1. The Congress of Miinster, 
assembled May 15, 1648, in the Rathhaus of Miinster, to ratify the 
treaty of peace between the Spaniards and the Dutch, after the war 
which had lasted 80 years. The chef-d'oeuvre of the master. 

797. Cuyp. A Male Portrait, 1649. 

175. Va7iderplaas,i(i\i — 1704. Portrait called, without foundation, ' 
"John Milton." 

155. D. Teniers. The Money-Changers. 

207. Nicholas Maas, 1632 — 1693. The Idle Servant, painted in 
1655 — a cat is going to steal a duck ready for the spit, while the cook 
is asleep. 

50. Antony Vandyck, 1 599 — 1 64 1. The Emperor Theodosius refused 
admission by St. Ambrose to the Church of San Vittore at Milan — a 
copy of the picture by Rubens at Vienna. 

242. D. Teniers. Players at Tric-trac — a Dutch interior. 
291. Lucas Cranach, 1472 — 1552. Portrait of a Young Lady in a 
red dress — from the Alton Towers Collection. 

51. Rembrandt. Portrait of a Jew Merchant. 

71. yaiz Both. Landscape, with mules and muleteers. 

140. Vander Heist, idii — 1 670. Portrait of a Lady. 

59. Rubens. The Brazen Serpent — a frightful picture, from the 
Marana Palace at Genoa ; a duplicate exists at Madrid. 

46. Rubens. Peace and War. This picture is interesting as having 
been presented to Charles I. by the painter as typical of the pacific 
measures he recommended when he was sent to England as accredited 
ambassador in 1630. In the king's catalogue it is called "Peace and 
Plenty." 

53. A. Cuyp. Cattle in the sunset. 

757. Rembrandt {?). Christ blessing Little Children— the children 
of Dutch peasants. 

209. J. Both. A Landscape, with figures, representing the Judgment 
of Paris, by Cornelius Poelenburg. 

166. Rembrandt. Portrait of a Capuchin Friar. 

737. Jacob Ruysdael, 1625— 1681. A Waterfa 

264. Gerard Vander Meire, 1 410— 1 480. A Count of Hanegau. 
with St. Ambrose, his patron saint. 



THE FOREIGN SCHOOLS. 



23 



654. Roger Vander Wey den the Younger, I ^^o — 1529. The Magdalen. 
747. Memling. St. John Baptist and St. Lawrence. 
710. Joachim de Fatinir, c. 1480 — 1524. St. Christopher carrying 
the Intant Christ. 

* 664. Roger Vander Weyden the Elder, c, 1390 — 1464. The 
Entombment— a wonderful picture, with ail the spirit and feeling ot 
the best Italian art. 

774. Hugo Vander Goes, c. 1440 — 1482. Madonna and Child 
enthroned. 
686. Memling. ISIadonna and Child enthroned in a garden. 

709. Memling. M adonna, with the Child on a white cushion. 

653. Roger Vander Weyden the Younger. Portraits of the Painter 
and his Wife. 

783. Dierick Bouts, c. 1391 — 1475. The Exhumation of St. Hubert, 
Bishop of Liege — from the Fonthill Collection. A picture of wonderful 
expression and exquisite finish. 

295. Quintin Matsys. Salvator Mundi and the Virgin. 

710. H. Vander Goes. Portrait of a Dominican Monk. 

656. Jan Gossaert, called, from his birthplace, Mabuse, c. 1470 — 
1532. Portrait of a man dressed in black. 

245. A. D'urer {?), 147 1 — 1528. Portrait of a Senator. 

278. Rubens. The Triumph of Julius Caesar. 

49. Vandyck. Portrait of Rubens — irom the collection of Sir J. 
Reynolds. 

* 243. Rembrandt. Male Portrait. 

45. Rembrandt. The Woman taken in Adultery — one of the finest 
of Rembrandt's cabinet pictures. The sorrow and repentance of the 
woman are vividly expressed, though she is a great lady repenting in a 
train. Painted for Jan Six, Heer van Vromade, in 1644. 

* 52. Vandyke. Portrait of Cornelius Vander Geest — a vigorous 
decided portrait with tender eyes, the outlines drawn in red, from the 
Angerstein Collection. 

66. Rubens. The Chateau of Stein, near Malines — from the Palazzo 
Balbi, at Genoa — the residence of the painter in the rich wooded 
scenery of Brabant. 

" Seldom as he practised it, Rubens was never greater than in land- 
scape. The tumble of his rocks and trees, the deep shadows in his 
shades and glooms, the watery sunshine and the dewy verdure, show a 
variety of genius which are not to be found in the inimitable but 
uniform productions of Claude." — Horace Walpole. 

194. Rubens. The Judgment of Paris — a picture greatly studied by 
artists. In allusion to the e\dls which resulted fi-om the Judgment, tho 
figure of Discord appears in the air. 



24 WALKS IN LONDON. 

* 672. Rembrandt. Portrait of the Artist at the age of thirty-two. 

158. D. Tenters. Boors merry-making. 

192. Gerard Dow, 1613 — 1675. His own Portrait. 
154. D. Tenters. A Music-Party. 

* 190. Rembrandt. A Jewish Rabbi — remarkable for its golden 
iDTies of light. The anatomy of the head may be easily traced. 

221, Reml'-andt, Portrait of the Artist as an old man — painted in 
a full light, very unusual with the master. 

817. D. Tenters. Chateau of the Artist at Perck. 

775. Rembrandt. Portrait of a Lady of eighty-three — painted in 
1634. 

47. Rembrandt. The Adoration of the Shepherds — the light, as 
in the "Notte" of Correggio, proceeds from the infant Saviour: the 
lantern of the shepherds fades before the Divine light. 

239. A. Vander Noer, 1613 — 1691. Moonlight scene, with shipping. 

159. Nicholas Maas. The Dutch Housewife, 1655. 

212. Theodore de Keyser, 1595 — c. 1660. A Merchant with his 
Clerk. 

794. Peter de Hooghe, seventeenth century. Courtyard of a Dutch 
House. 

685. Vandyke. Sketch for the Miraculous Draught of Fishes. 

Room XIII. Italian School. 

* 908. Pietro delta Francesca of Borgo San Sepolcro, 1415 — c. 1495. 
The Nativity. Five angels are singing and playing vigorously on 
guitars in honour of the Holy Child, who is lying on the Virgin's 
mantle in the front of the picture. The angels have no shadows. In 
the ruined shed behind are an ox and an ass. Joseph is seated on the 
ass's saddle, with two shepherds near him. The picture is unfinished, 
but exceedingly characteristic of the all-powerful artist, who was the 
master of Perugino and Luca Signorelli. It belonged to the family of 
Marini-Franceschi at Borgo San Sepolcro, the native town of the artist. 

668. Carlo Crtvellt of Venice, c. 1440— 1493. The Beato Ferretti 
(an ancestor of Pope Pius IX. — Mastai Ferretti) at prayer beholds 
the Virgin and Child in a vision. The rustic details are given with 
wonderful care. 

275. Sandro Botticellt of Florence, 1447— 1510. The Virgin and 
Child, with St. John Baptist and an angel. A circular picture which 
once belonged to the famous architect, Giuliano di San Gallo. 

286. Francesco Taccont of Cremona. The Virgin Enthroned, 1489 
— a very simple and beautiful picture in the style of G. Bellini. 

* 667. Fra Filippo Lippi oi Florence, ob. 1469. St. John the Bap- 



THE FOREIGN SCHOOLS, 25 

tist seated on a marble bench, between SS. Cosmo and Damian — 
beyond these, on the right, are SS. Francis and Lawrence ; on the 
left SS. Anthony and Peter Martyr. 

911. Beniardi?to di Betto of Perugia, commonly called Pinturicchio, 
1454 — 15 13. The Return of Ulysses to Penelope. She is seated at 
her loom, with a maid winding thread on shuttles ; a cat is playing with 
it, and four suitors are in attendance. To her enters Ulysses from the 
ship which is seen in the distance. This picture, so curious in costume 
and movement, came from the Palazzo Pandolfo-Petrucci at Siena. 

589. Fra Angelica da Fiesole {Giovanni Guido), 1387 — 1447. 

703. Pinturicchio. Madonna and ChUd. 

598. Filippino Lippi of Florence (son of Fra Filippo), 1460 — 1505. 
St. Francis in Glory. 

771. Bono da Ferrara, fifteenth century. St. Jerome in the Desert. 

904. Gregorio Schiavone, fifteenth century (School of Padua). 
Madonna and Child enthroned, with saints. One of the best picture? 
of the master. 

736. Francesco Bonsignori of Verona, 1455 — 15 19. Portrait of a 
Venetian Senator, 1487. 

916. Sandro Botticelli. Venus Reclining — Cupids sport around 
with fruit and flowers. 

776. Vittore Pisano of Verona, early fifteenth century. St. 
Anthony— man^ellous for expression — with his staff and bell and his 
attendant pig, and St. George in silver armour, with a large Tuscan hat 
upon his head. The wood of bays behind is thoroughly Veronese. 
This curious picture, from the Conestabili Collection at Ferrara, 
was presented in memory of Sir Charles Eastlake, Director of the 
National Gallery [oh. 1865) by his widow. Inserted in the frame are 
casts from the medals by Pisano. 

770. Giovanni Oriolo of Ferrara, fifteenth century. Portrait of 
Leonello d'Este, Marquis of Ferrara — signed. 

673. Antonello da Messiita, c. 1414 — c. 1495 — who first introduced the 
Flemish system of oil-painting into Italy. Salvator Mundi — signed in 
a cartellino, 

591. Benozzo Gozzoli oi Florence, 1420 — 1478. The Rape of Helen 
— from the Palazzo Albergotti at Arezzo. 

* 666. Fra Filippo Lippi. The Annunciation. An angel with 
glorious peacock wings (" They were full of eyes within ") kneels to a 
Virgin of exquisite humility, and follows with his eyes the Holy Dove 
which is floating towards her : the lights are heightened with gold. 
Painted for Cosimo de' Medici, and long in the Medici Palace. An 
exquisitely beautiful lily between the Virgin and the angel springs 
from a vase strangely out of drawing. 



It WALJCS IN LONDON. 

91c. Luca Signorelli of Cortona, fifteenth century. The Triumph 
ot Chastity (maidens cutting the wings and breaking the bow of Cupid) 
— a fresco, from the Palazzo Petrucci at Siena, not a worthy representa- 
tion of this glorious master. 

*663. Fra Angelica. Christ adored by the Heavenly Host. This 
IS that predeJla of the altar-piece m St. Domenico at Fiesole, ot which 
Vasari* wrote that "its numberless figures truly breathed ot Paradise, 
and that one could never be satisfied with gazing upon it." 

727. Francesco Pesellino of Florence, 1422 — 1457. A "Trinita " from 
the Church of the Santissima Trinita at Pistoja. 

737. Carlo Orivelli. The Annunciation — from the Church of the 
SS. Annunziata at Ascoli. St. Emidius, the patron of Ascoli, attends 
the angel. 

292. Antonio Pollajuolo of Florence, more celebrated as a sculptor 
than a painter — c. 1429 — 1498. The Martydom of St. Sebastian. 
This picture, considered by Vasari as the masterpiece of the artist, was 
painted in 1475 as an altar-piece for the Pucci Chapel in the Church oi 
the SS. Annunziata at Florence : Gino di Ludovico Capponi is immor- 
talised as the saint. 

* 902. Andrea Mantegna (School of Mantua), 1431 — 1506. The 
Triumph oi Publius Cornelius Scipio — i.e. his being chosen, in accord- 
ance with the Delphic Oracle as the worthiest Roman citizen, to 
receive the image of the Phrj'gian Mother of the Gods when brought 
to Rome c. B.C. 204. Painted in monochrome for the Venetian, 
Francesco Cornaro, who claimed descent from the Gens Cornelia 
— from the Palazzo Cornaro at Venice. The drapery is nobly painted, 
and the figures full of varied expression. 

807. Carlo Crivelli. The Virgin and Chilld enthroned, with St. 
Francis and St. Sebastian : the donor, a Dominican Nun, kneels by 
St. Francis — signed, 149 1. Observe, in this and all subsequent pictures 
of Carlo, the apples and pears constantly introduced by this fruit-loving 
master. 

909. Benvenuto da Siena, 1436— c. 1510. Madonna and Child 
enthroned, with two angels. 

766. Domenico Veneziano, fifteenth century, Florentine School. 
Head of a Monk — fresco. 

631. Francesco Bissolo oi Venice, early sixteenth century. Portrait 
of a Lady — a poor specimen of this delightful artist. 

781. Pollajuolo. The Archangel Raphael and Tobias. 

692. Lodovico da Parma, early sixteenth century. Head of St. 
Hugh of Grenoble. 

762. Domenico Veneziano. Head of a Saint. 

* Vite dei Pittori, iv. 29. 



THE FOREIGN SCHOOLS. 27 

* 698. Piero di Cosimo, 1462 — c. 1521. The Death of Procris. A 
Satyr has discovered the maiden lying dead near the shore of an 
estuary hke the upper part of the Bristol Channel. The hound Lelaps, 
the gift of Diana, sits near her. An admirable example of this great 
master of mythological subjects. 

* 726. Giovanni Bellini ( ?) of Venice, 1427 — 1 5 16. The Agony in the 
Garden. Ail angel bearing the cup of the Passion appears to our 
Lord ; in the foreground are the disciples deeply sleeping (St. John's is 
the sleep of suffering) ; in the background Judas is guiding the Jews to 
the garden. The sunset sky is glorious. 

597. Marco Zoppo, fifteenth century, School of Padua. St. 
Dominic, Institutor of the Rosary. 

181. Pietro Vanucci, called, from his city, // Perugino, c. 1 446 — 
1524, The Virgin and Child, wdth St. John — signed on the hem of 
the Virgin's mantle. 

906. Carlo Crivelli. The Madonna in Ecstasy — from the Malatesta 
Chapel at Rimini. 

* 788. C. Crivelli. An altar-piece, which belonged to the Church of 
St, Domenico at Ascoli. In the lowest stage are the Virgin, St. 
Peter, St. John Baptist, St. Catherine, and St. Dominic. In the 
second stage are St. Francis, St. Andrew, St. Stephen, and St. 
Thomas Aquinas. In the third stage are St. Michael and St. Lucy, 
with St. Jerome on the right, and St. Peter MartjT on the left — a 
rich specimen of the master : the ornaments are raised and studded 
with jewels. 

758. Pietro deila Francesca. Portrait of a Lady, supposed to be a 
Contessa Palma of Urbino. 

592. Filippino Lippi. The Adoration of the Magi. 

724. Carlo Crivelli. Madonna and Child enthroned, with St. 
Jerome and St. Sebastian. The swallow which is introduced has 
given this picture the name of "La Madonna della Rondine "—from 
the Franciscan Church of Matelica. 

773, Cosimo Tura of Fcrrara, fifteenth century. St. Jerome in 
the Wilderness beating his breast with a stone. 

802. Bartolonimeo Montagna of Vicenza, c. 1480 — 1523. Madonna 
and Child — an unworthy example of a most interesting master. 

*8l2. Giovanni Bellini. The Death of St. Peter Mart>T, 1252, in 
a wood of bay-trees (at which the woodmen, disregarding the murder, 
continue to cut)— such as one still sees in some of the old Italian villas. 
Peter, regarded as a martyr by the Roman Catholic Church, was 
really murdered, to avenge his fiendish cruelties through the Inquisition 
as General of the Dominicans, and to prevent their continuance. 

915. Saiidro Botticelli. ?»Iars and \'enus. Mars is sleeping deeply, 



28 WALKS IN LONDON. 

one little satyr is shouting through a shell to wake him, others are 
playing with his armour. 

247. Niccolo Alunno of Foligno, late fifteenth century. Ecce Homo. 

585. Pietro della Francesca. Portrait believed to represent the 
famous Isotta da Rimini, wife of Sigismondo Malatesta. Her costume 
is very curious, especially the jewelled head-dress and jewel-edged veil. 

602. Carlo Crivelli. Pieta. 

665. Pietro della Francesca. The Baptism of Christ. The dreary 
character of his native limestone Apennines is portrayed by the artist — 
rom St. Giovanni Evangelista at Borgo San Sepolcro. 

Room XIV. 

779, 780. Ambrogio Borgognone, sometimes called Amhrogio da 
Fossano from his birthplace, late fifteenth century. Family groups, 
kneeling (their faces much alike), probably at a tomb — fragments of a 
standard in the Certosa at Pavia. 

751. Giovanni Santi, the poet painter of Urbino, father of RafFaelle, 
late fifteenth century. Madonna and Child — the view from Urbino 
forms the background. 

* 298. Boroognojie. The Virgin and Child enthroned. The ChUd 
presents a ring to St. Catherine of Alexandria, whose wheel lies at her 
feet : St. Catherine of Siena— a noble figure— stands on the other side 
with her lily — from the Chapel of Rebecchino near Pavia. 

* 179. Francesco Raibolini of Bologna, commonly called Franciay 
1450 — 1517. The Virgin and St. Anne are enthroned. The Child, on 
its mother's knee, stretches to take an apple from St. Anne, the very 
type of a gi-andmother, whose aged face — the noblest in the picture — is 
full of playful affection : on the left are St. Sebastian and St. Paul, on 
the right St. Lawrence and St. Romualdo. Beneath the pedestal is 
inscribed " Francia Aurifex Bononensis P." A lovely little St. John is 
bounding with the scroll of " Ecce Agnus Dei." 

* 180. F. Francia. A Pieta. The Madonna, of most touching 
expression, holds the dead body of Christ upon her knees. At the 
sides are two (greatly inferior) angels. This was the lunette of the 
preceding picture, which was painted for the Cappella Buonvisi in the 
Church of St. Frediano at Lucca. 

623. Girolafuo Pennachi, commonly called, from his birthplace, 
Girolamo da Treviso, 1497 — 1544. The Virgin and Child enthroned. 
The donor is presented by St. Paul : St. Joseph and St. James stand 
by. Painted for the Cappella Boccaferri in St. Domenico at Bologna. 

* 288. Pietro Perugino. An altar-piece in three parts. The Virgin, 
full of reverential awe, Icneels as if in thanksgiving for the Holy Child, 



THE FOREIGN SCHOOLS. 29 

an innocent babe supported by an angel. Three angels float tranquilly 
in the deep blue sky above, with scrolls from which they will probably 
sing. Daylight is sinking behind the distant sea and a stiU beautiful 
Umbrian landscape. On the left is a noble triumphant St. Michael, 
with wings half scaly, half feathered : the scales with which he weighs 
souls hang on a tree beside him. On the right, St. Raphael leads the 
young beautiful Tobias, who carries his fish, through a flowery meadow. 
This picture belonged to an altar-piece in three parts painted for the 
Certosa of Pavia. One of the upper parts remains there still, the other 
compartments are supplied by copies. The portions here were pur- 
chased for the comparatively small sum of ;!^3,57i. 

753. Altohello Melone of Cremona, late fifteenth century. Christ and 
the two Disciples on the way to Emmaus — painted for the Church of St. 
Bartolommeo at Cremona. Clarist is a pilgrim with his staff, and a 
cockle-shell in his hat. 

* 274. Andrea Montegna, The Virgin, a peasant maid, is enthroned 
with the Child under a red canopy backed by orange and citron trees 
of wondrous execution. The Magdalen and St. John Baptist stand 
at the sides : the latter is a noble figure with floating hair and drapery, 
and a speaking face which says, "Ecce Agnus Dei, ecce qui tolHt 
peccata mundi." On the inner side of his scroll is the artist's signature 
— "Andreas Mantinia, C.P.F." Nothing can exceed the exquisite 
finish of the plants and stones in the foreground. 

* 296. Pollajuolo. The Madonna, such a figure as Isotta da Rimini, 
adores the Child, who looks innocently up at her as it lies across her 
knee eating a raspberry. Of two angels, one looks indifferently out of 
the picture : the other gazes in rapturous awe at something beyond the 
group. Such strange rocks as are introduced here may be frequently 
seen in the Apennines at La Vernia. The ^ethereal glories here are 
peculiar to Florentine masters of this period. The profession of Polla- 
juolo as a goldsmith comes out in the beautiful old jewelled ornaments 
worn by the Virgin and one of the angels. 

629. Lorenzo Costa of Ferrara, 1460 — 1535. Madonna and ChUd 
enthroned, with saints and angels — a beautiful picture hung too high 
lor study. From the Oratorio delle Grazie at Faenza. 

806. Boccaccio Boccaccino of Cremona, c. 1496 — 1518. The Proces- 
sion to Calvary — a coarse but powerful picture. From the Ch«rch of 
St. Domenico de' Osservanti at Cremona. 

282. Gioruanni di Pietro oi Spoleto, commonly called Lo Spagna (the 
Spaniard), early sixteenth century. The Virgin enthroned. The Holy 
Child upon her knees looks down to a human child beneath, who is 
about to serenade Him. From the Palazzo Ercolani at Bologna. 

293. Filippino Lippi. A grand weird picture. The Virgin and 



30 



WALKS IN LONDON. 



Child are in a wild Apennine landscape between St Jerome and St. 
Anthony — a noble figure with his book and lily. Belind St. Anthony 
the simple hermit life of the mountain is portrayiid. Behind St. 
Jerome, his lion defends his lair against the pig (a wild boar) of St. 
Anthony. This picture, in its marvellous finish, introduces the peculiar 
flowers of the high mountains in Tuscany. In the predella is St. 
Joseph of Arimathea supporting the dead Christ between St. Francis 
and the Magdalen. The arms of the family indicate the picture having 
been painted for the Ruccellai Chapel at Florence, where it long re- 
mained in the Church of St. Pancrazio. 

735- Pf^olo Morando of Verona, commonly called Cavazzola, 1 484 — 
1522. St. Roch and the Angel —splendid in colour. St. Roch is 
always represented with the ulcer in his leg, which resulted from his 
devotion to those sick of the plague at Piacenza, but which caused him 
to be exiled from the haunts of men for fear of infection : in his 
solitude he was supported by his little dog, which brought him bread 
from the city. From the Cagnoli altar in Santa Maria della Scala at 
Verona. 

* 18. Bernardino Luini. Christ disputing with the Doctors— a 
very beautiful picture injured by restoration. The Saviour is twenty- 
four, not twelve. 

748. Girolaino daiLihri oiY^xom., 10^12 — 1555. St. Anne with the 
Virgin and Child seated under a lemon-tree (the especial characteristic 
of the master), and three angels serenading. Behind is the wattled 
fence of reeds so common in Italy still, entwined with roses. From 
the Church of Santa Maria della Scala at Verona. 

734. Attdrea da Solaria (Milanese School), 1458 — 15 16. A noble 
Portrait of Giovanni Cristoforo Longorio, painted in 1505. The back- 
ground is most beautiful. , 

728. Giovantti Antonio Beltraffio oi MiXsxi, I /s^Gj — 1516. Madonna 
and Child— the Virgin is no peasant, but a noble Milanese lady backed 
by a rich green curtain wrought with gold. 

700. Ber-7iardino Lanini of VerceUi, sixteenth century. Madonna and 
Child— the child playfully shrmks from the smiling St. Catherine. St. 
Paul gives it an apple; St. Gregory and St. Joseph stand in the 
background. 

* 27. Raffaelle. Pope Julius II.— a repetition of the weU-known 
picture at Florence. 

24. Sehastiano Luciani of Venice, generally called Sebastian del 
Piombo, from his being keeper of the Leaden Seals, 1485 — 1547- The 
Portrait of a Lady, supposed to be Giulia Gonzaga, painted as St. 
Apollonia (as is indicated by the pincers). Called " a divine picture " 
by Vasari. 



THE FOREIGN SCHOOLS, 31 

* ro. Antonio Allegri (commonly called // Correggio from his birth- 
place), the great artist of Parma, 1493 — 1534. Mercury teaching Cupid 
his letters, while Venus holds his bow. Purchased by Charles I. from 
the Duke of Mantua in 1630, but sold with the rest of the royal collec- 
tion and purchased by the Duke of Alva, from whom it passed into the 
collection of Godoy, Prince of the Peace. When his collection was 
sold at Madrid during the French invasion, it was bought by Murat 
and taken to the royal palace at Naples. Queen Caroline carried it off 
with her to Vienna, and it was bought from her collection by the 
Marquis of Londonderry. 

" The figure of Venus is of slender, fine proportions ; the attitude of 
the beautiful hmbs of the most graceful flow of Imes, with all the parts 
at the same time so modelled in the clearest and most blooming 
colours, that Correggio may here be called a sciilptor on a flat sur- 
lace." — Dr. Waagen. 

" Those who may not perfectly understand what artists and critics 
mean when they dwell with rapture on Correggio's wonderful 
chiaro-oscuro should look well into this picture ; they will perceive that in 
the painting of the limbs they can look through the shadows into the 
substance, as it might be into the flesh and blood ; the shadows seem 
mutable, accidental, and aerial, as if between the eye and the colour, 
and not incorporated with them ; in this lies the inimitable excellence 
of this master." — Mrs. Jameson. 

1024. Giambatfista Moroni ofBergaxno, I ^10 — 1578. Portrait of a 
Laviyer— a most astute man. 

650. Angela Bronzino (School of Florence), 1502 — 1572. Portrait of 
a Lady. 

15. Correggio. Christ presented by Pilate to the People — a picture 
full of intensest anguish of expression: once in the Colonna Gallery 
at Rome. 

" The expression and attitude of Christ are extremely grand ; even 
the deepest grief does not disfigure his features. The manner in 
which he holds forward his hands, which are tied together, is in itself 
sufficient to express the depth of suffering. On the left is a Roman 
soldier of rude, but not otherwise than noble aspect, and evidently 
touched by pity : on the right, Pilate looking with indifference over a 
parapet. The Virgin, in front, is fainting, overpowered by her grief, 
in the arms of the Magdalen : her head is of the highest beauty. The 
drawing in this picture is more severe than is usual with Correggio." — 
Kugler. 

670. Bronzino. A Knight of St. Stefano. 

17. Andrea Vannucchi of Florence, commonly called Andrea del 
Sarto, from his being the son of a tailor, 1487— 1531. The Holy 



32 



WALKS IN LONDON. 



Family -a dark powerful picture. The Virgin holds the laughing 
Child, to whom St. Anne turns, her face in deep shadow. St. John 
Baptist leans against St. Anne and watches the Holy Child, his scroll 
and staff thrown on the gi'ound. 

* 287. Bartolommeo Veneziano. Portrait of Lodovico Martinengo 
(1530), in the picturesque costume of the Compagnia della Calza. One 
of the only three known pictures of the artist. Bought from the heir 
of Count Girolamo Martinengo. 

624. Giulio de" Gianuzzi, called Giulio Romano, 1492 — 1546. The 
Infancy of Jupiter. The landscape, with its quaint vine wreaths and 
flowers heightened with gold, is supposed to be by Giafnbattista 
Dossi. 

669. Giovanni Battista Benvenuti of Ferrara, called U OrtolanOy 
from his father's occupation as a gardener. St. Sebastian, St. Roch, 
and St. Demetrius. 

651. Bronzino. Venus, Cupid, Folly, and Time — a foolish, ugly, 
inexplicable picture. 

272. Giov. Antonio Licinio, called // Pordenone, from his birth- 
place, 1483— 1539. An Apostle. 

649. jfacopo Carticci, called, from his birthplace, yacopo da Pontormo, 
1494 — 1556. Portrait of a Boy in a crimson and black dress. 

674. Paris Bordone of Treviso, 1500— 1571. Portrait of a Contessa 
Brignole of Genoa — part of the palace at Genoa is seen in the back- 
ground. 

41. Giorgio Barbarelli oiYtmcG, called, from his beauty, Giorgione^ 
1477 — 151 1. The Death of St. Peter Martyr — a doubtful picture in a 
hideous English frame. 

* 294. Paul Veronese. The Family of Darius at the feet of 
Alexander after the Battle of the Issus, B.C. 333. This, long one of 
the most celebrated pictures at Venice, was painted for Count Pisani, 
and contains many portraits of the Pisani family. It was purchased in 
1857 for ^^13,650. 

255. Giulio Romano. Assumption of the Magdalen. 

299. Alessandro Bonvicino. Portrait of Count Sciarra Martinengo 
of Brescia. While still a boy, the services of his father to Francis I. 
caused him to be received into the household of Henry II. as page, 
and in his eighteenth year he was made knight of the Order of St. 
Michael, the most coveted of French honours. " There gleamed in 
his eyes," says Rossi,* "an indomitable desire for glory, and on his 
brow might be read a soul unmindful of death or danger." While at 
the French Court, he received the news that his father was murdered 
by a vendetta of Count Alovisio Avogadro. He flew to Brescia and 
* Elogi 'r\ istorici dei Bresciani Illustri, 1620. 



THE FOREIGN SCHOOLS. 33 

fell npon Avogadro as he came out of church : the murderer escaped in 
the scuffle, but one of his kinsmen was slain. The adventures of 
Martinengo's later life and his numerous duels are recounted by Bran- 
tome, who describes him as the "sweetest-tempered and most gracious 
gentleman whom it was possible to meet with, and a sure friend when 
he gave his promise." In 1569 he was killed under the walls of La 
Charite on the Upper Loire, whilst reconnoitring the place for an 
assault. In his portrait we see on the brim of his hat an inscription in 
Greek characters " through excessive desire," his father's last words, 
which he always wore to remind himself that his vengeance was still 
incomplete. 

* 742. Moroni. Portrait of a Lawyer — beautiful at once in colour 
and quietude, on a simple grey background. 

3. Titian. The Music Lesson. Purchased by Charles I. from 
Mantua. 

16. Tintoretto. St. George and the Dragon. The whole story is 
told, but the horse of St. George will inevitably plunge over the preci- 
pice and be lost in the lake, on the edge of which the Dragon is 
waiting. 

218. Baldassare Peruzzi,t\ie architect of Siena (?), 1481 — 1536. The 
Adoration of the Magi — a very doubtful picture. 

26. Paul Vero7tese. The Consecration of St. Nicholas, Bishop of 
Myra. This picture, which shows the master's thorough knowledge of 
chiaro-oscuro, is from the Church of San Niccolo de' Frari at Venice. 

* 697. Moroni. Portrait of a Tailor. 

699. Lorenzo Lotto of Treviso, 1480 — 1558. Portraits of Agostino 
and Niccolo della Toire. 

* 34. Titian {?) Venus and Adonis. Venus vainly endeavours to 
hold back Adonis from the chase, for Love is asleep in the background. 
From the Colonna Palace at Rome, a copy of the picture at Madrid. 

32. Titian. The Rape of Gan^Tnede. An octagonal picture, pro- 
bably intended for a ceiling, from the Palazzo Colonna. 

" The effect of the handsome boy, coloured in the fullest golden 
tone, every part being carefully rounded, contrasted with the powerful 
black eagle which is flying away with him, is admirable." — Waagen. 

1023. Moroni. Lady in a red di-ess. 

224. Titian. The Tribute Money. 

* 625. Alessandro Bonvicino. St. Bernardino of Siena with St. 
Jerome, St. Joseph, St. Francis, and St. Nicholas of Bari. The 
Vu-gin and Child appear above, with St. Catherine and St. Clara. 
At the feet of St. Bernardino are the mitres of the three bishoprics 
which he refused — Urbino, Siena, and Ferrara. He holds the mono- 
gram of I.H.S., which appears over all the gates of his native Siena. 

VOL. II. D 



34 WALKS IN LONDON. 

" Wlien preaching St. Bernardino was accustomed to hold in Ms 
hand a tablet, on which was carved, within a circle of golden rays, the 
name of Jesus. A certain man who had gained his living by the manu- 
facture of cards and dice went to him, and represented to him that in 
consequence of the reformation of manners, gambling was gone out of 
fashion, and he was reduced to beggary. The saint desired him to 
exercise his ingenuity in carving tablets of the same kind as that which 
he held in his hand, and to sell them to the people. A peculiar 
sanctity was soon attached to these memorials ; the desire to possess 
them became general ; and the man who by the manufacture of gaming- 
tools could scarcely keep himself above want, by the fabrication of 
these tablets realised a fortune. Hence in the figure of St. Bernardino 
he is usually holding one of these tablets, the I.H.S. encircled with 
rays, in his hand." — Jameson''s Monastic Orders. 

1025. // Moretto. One of the noblest and simplest Portraits of the 
master. 

4. Titian. A Holy Family, with a Shepherd (a shepherd of Friuli) 
in adoration. 

637. Paris Bordone. Daphnis and Chloe. 

* I. Sebastian del Piomho. The Resurrection of Lazarus— the 
master-piece of the artist, and one of the most important pictures in 
England. It is especially interesting as having been executed by 
Sebastian for Cardinal Giulio de' Medici, afterwards Pope Clement VII., 
as an altar-piece to the Cathedral of Narbonne, of which he was then 
Archbishop. It was to be the rival and companion of the "Trans- 
figuration " of Raffaelle, which was ordered by the same patron for 
the same cathedral. Sebastian had already enlisted himself as a 
partisan of Michel Angelo in his rivahy with Raffaelle, and it is 
generally believed that in this instance the greater master — " il dio di 
disegno "—furnished the drawing of some of the figures, if not the 
design of the whole composition. Raff"aelle is said to have heard of 
this, and to have exclaimed, "I am giaciously favoured by Michel 
Angelo in that he has declared me worthy to compete with himself 
instead of Sebastian." In the year of Raffaelle's death, 1520, the 
rival pictures were exhibited together at Rome : the "Transfiguration'' 
was kept there, and the "Raising of Lazarus" sent to Narbonne, whence 
it was bought by the Regent Duke of Orleans in the last century. It 
was purchased, on the sale of the Orleans Collection, by Mr. Angerstein, 
who refused a large off"er for it from the French Government, which was 
anxious to bring it once more into juxtaposition with the " Transfigura- 
tion," when that great picture was in the Louvre. The picture is 
mscribed — " Sebastianus Venetus Faciebat." 

" In the figure of Lazarus, who is gazing upwards at Christ, while at 



THE FOREIGN SCHOOLS. 35 

the same time he endeavours to disengage himself from the bandages, 
the expression of returning life is wonderfully given. The Christ him- 
self, a noble form, is pointing with his right hand to heaven, while the 
miracle just performed is told in the grandest way in the various 
expressions of the bystanders. The execution is of the greatest 
solidity, and the colouring still deep and full." — Kugler. 

635. Titia7i. The Virgin and Child, with St. John. 

20. Sebastian del Pionibo. Portraits of Cardinal Ippolito de' Medici 
and the Artist — from the Borghese Palace. 

* 1022. Moroni. A noble Portrait of a Warrior who has taken off 
his armour. Except in the face, the picture is almost entirely painted 
in black, brown, and grey. 

297. Girola?no Romani of Brescia, called // Romanifto, 1480 — 
1560. The Nativity. On the left are St. Alessandro, martjT of Brescia, 
and St. FiHppo Benizzi ; on the right St. Jerome and St. Gaudioso, 
Bishop of Brescia. An altar-piece, finished in 1525, for St. Alessandro 
of Brescia. A very noble picture. 

* 234. Giovanni Bellini. A most glorious picture, which illuminates 
the whole side of the gallery. The Madonna (her indifferent expression 
the only blemish in the work) holds the Holy Child. St. Joseph 
stands by, his rich brown robe sunlit yet dark against the glowing sky 
and a lovely landscape like that of the Apennines near Pietra Santa. 
One of the Magi, in armour, kneels in adoration of the Child, while an 
attendant, in deep shadow, holds his horse behind a low parapet wall, 
beneath which a charming little dog is seated. The well-known studio 
property of Giovanni Bellini, the green drapery with a red edge (which 
is seen in the adjoining picture as the background of the Virgin) is here 
stretched upon the ground as a carpet. 

280. Giovanni Bellini. A Madonna and Child often repeated by 
the master, but an unpleasing specimen. 

750. Vittore 'Carpaccio of Venice, 1450 — c. 1524. The Madonna 
enthroned, with the Doge Giovanni Mocenigo entreating her interces- 
sion in the Plague of Venice of 1478, and her blessing upon the 
remedies in the golden vase before her throne. Behind the Doge 
stands his patron, St. John Baptist ; behind the Virgin is St. Christo- 
pher, with the infant Christ upon his shoulders. 

634. Cima da Conegliano, c. 1480 — 1520. Madonna and Child. 

816. Ci7na da Conegliano. The Incredulity of St. Thomas — painted 
for the Church of St. Francesco at Portogruaro. 

803. Marco Marziale of Venice. The Circumcision — a curious 
and expressive picture, painted in 1500 for the Church of St. Silvestro 
at Cremona. It bears the painter's monogi'am and an inscription in a 
cartellino. 



36 WALKS IN LONDON, 

749. Niccolo Giolfino. Portraits of the Giusti Family at Verona. 

300. Cima da Conegliano. Madonna and Child. 

695. Andrea Previtali ot Bergamo, early sixteenth century. Ma 
doiina and Child. 

804. Marco Marziale. Madonna and Child enthroned ; on the right, 
St. Gallo Abate and St. John Baptist ; on the lett St. Andrew and St. 
James of Compostella. Fiom the Church ot St. Gallo at Cremona. 

* 599. Marco Basaiti. The Virgin, with the Child deeply and most 
sweetly sleeping on her knee, sits in her blue robe and white veil iu a 
meadow on the outskirts of such a tower-girdled town as Spello. 
Snowy clouds float across the quiet blue sky. The railings are of the 
simplest Italian construction. The flowers ot spring are out, but the 
trees have scarcely begun to bud. On the one side a cowherd lies 
amongst his cattle ; on the other a peasant woman is keeping her cows 
and lop-eared sheep. At the foot of a tree a stork is fighting with a 
snake, while an eagle looks down from the leafless branches. 

589. Fra Filippo Lippi (.'). An Angel presents the Holy Infant to 
the Virgin. 

Room XV. 

755. Melozzo da Forli. Rhetoric (?). 

636. Titian. A noble Portrait, said to be that of Ariosto. 

808. Giovanni Bellini. St. Peter Martyr. 

* 213. Raffaelle. The Vision of a Knight — a lovely miniature in 
oils, painted on wood, from the Aldobrandini Collection. A female 
figure stands on either side of the sleeping youth ; one, in a crimson 
robe, offers him a book and sword ; the other, richly dressed, tempts 
him with the flowers of life. 

269. Giorgione. This most interesting painting, bequeathed by 
Rogers the poet, is a study for the picture of St. Liberate in the altar- 
piece of Castelfranco, and is evidently a portrait of Matteo Costanzo, 
son of Tuzio Costanzo of Castelfranco, a noble "free-lance" who 
fought for the Republic of Venice, and died at Ravenna in 1504.* 

595. Battista Zelotti oi\e:ron2i, 1532 — c. 1592. Portrait of a Lady. 

270. Titiait. The Appearance of Christ to the Magdalen in the 
Garden. Bequeathed by Rogers the poet. 

"The Magdalen, kneeling, bends forward with eager expression, 
and one hand extended to touch the Saviour ; He, drawing his linen 
garment around him, shrinks back from her touch — yet with the softest 
expression of pity. Besides the beauty and truth of the expression, this 
picture is transcendent as a piece of colour and effect ; while the ricii 

* See Crowe and Cavalcaselle. 



THE FOREIGN SCHOOLS. 37 

landscape and the approach of morning over the blue distance are 
conceived with a sublime simplicity." — Jatnesoit's Sacred Art. 

* 35. Titian. Bacchus and Ariadne. Returning from a sacrifice in 
the island of Naxos, attended by Silenus, with nymphs and fauns, 
Bacchus meets with Ariadne after her desertion by Theseus, wooes her, 
and carries her off in triumph. One of three pictiures painted c. 15 14 
for Duke Alfonso of Ferrara. 

"Is there anything in modem art in anyway analogous to what 
Titian has effected, in the wonderful bringing together of two times in 
the ' Ariadne ' of the National Gallery ? Precipitous, with his reeling 
satyrs around him, re-peopling and re-illuming suddenly the waste 
places, drunk with a new fury beyond that of the grape, Bacchus, bom 
in fire, fire-like flings himself at the Cretan. This is time present. 
With this telling of the story, an artist, and no ordinary one, might 
remain richly proud. Guido, in his harmonious version of it, saw no 
further. But from the depths of the imaginative spirit Titian has 
recalled past time, and made it contributory with the present to one 
simultaneous effect. With the desert all ringing with the mad cymbals 
of his followers, made lucid with the presence and new offers of a god — 
as if unconscious of Bacchus, or but idly casting her eyes as upon some 
unconceming pageant, her soul undisturbed from Theseus, Ariadne is 
still pacing the solitary shore, in as much heart-silence, and in almost 
the same local solitude, with which she awoke at daybreak to catch the 
forlorn last glances of the sail that bore away the Athenian." — Charles 
Lamb. 

" Thee seeking, Ariadne, Bacchus young 

Hurries with flying steps the shores along. 

Before his path the Satyrs madly prance. 

The gay Sileni, Nysa's offspring, dance ; 

Wild sporting round him range the frantic rout, 

And toss their brows, and Evse, Evae ! shout. 

Some brandish high their ivy-covered spears ; 

Some tear the quivering limbs from mangled steers ; 

Some round their waists enwrithing serpents tie ; 

Some with their stores from ozier caskets ply 

Those fearful orgies, that high mystic rite 

That's ever hid from uninitiate sight ; 

Some their lank arms on echoing timbrels dash ; 

Some from the cymbals their thin tinklings clash ; 

Some wake the trumpet's hoarser blast of strife. 

Or the sharp note of the discordant fife." 

Catullus. Trans, by G. Lamh, 
277. y. Bassano. The Good Samaritan. 



38 WALKS IN LONDON. 

222. Van Eyck, c. 1390— 1440. Male Portrait in black fur, with red 
drapery on the head, 1433. 

" So highly finished that the single hairs on the shaven chin are 
given." — Waagen. 

290. Van Eyck. Male Portrait. 

638. Francia. Madonna and Child, with saints. 

* 186. Van Eyck. Portraits of Jean Arnolfini and his wife, Jeanne 
de Chenany, 1434. This picture belonged to Margaret of Austria, and 
afterwards, in 1556, to Mary, Queen Dowager of Hungary, who gave 
a pension of one hundred guilders as a reward to a banker who pre- 
sented it to her. Observe the marvellous beauty of the chandelier, 
mirror, and other details introduced, and the scene in the room as 
reflected in the mirror. 

658. Martm Schongauer. The Death of the Virgin. 
809. Michel Angela Buonarrotti, 1475 — 1564. The Virgin and 
Child, with St. John Baptist and angels— in tempera, unfinished. 
923. Andrea di Solario. Portrait of a Venetian Senator. 

* 744. Raffaelle. The Holy Family, known as the " Garvagh 
Raffaelle," from the family from whom it was purchased in 1865, having 
originally come from the Palazzo Aldobrandini at Rome. The Ma- 
donna, a graceful and lovely figure, holds the Child upon her lap, who 
is giving a pink to the infant St. John, who holds a cross in his right 
hand. 

* 168. Raffaelle. St. Catherine of Alexandria, painted c. 1507— 
from the Aldobrandini Collection. St. Catherine, having successfully 
discussed theology with fifty heathen philosophers, was condemned by 
the Emperor Maximin, 310, to be broken on the wheel, but the wheels 
were miraculously broken in pieces. The saint was eventually be- 
headed, but the broken wheel is her attribute. RafFaelle's first idea 
for this picture, drawn with a pen, is at Oxford ; the Duke of Devon- 
shire has a more finished study. 

777. Morando. Madonna and Child, with St. John Baptist and an 
angel. 

790, Michel Angela. The Entombment— from the collection of 
Cardinal Fesch. 

* 690. Andrea del Sarto. Portrait of Himself. 

" His life was corroded by the poisonous solvent of love, and his sonl 
burnt into dead ashes." — Stvinhurne. 

* 23. Correggio. The Holy Family — called "LaVierge an Panier," 
from the basket in the left comer. From the Royal Gallery at Madrid. 

•' This picture shows that Correggio was the greatest master of aerial 
perspective of his time." — Mengs. 

<' Never perhaps did an artist succeed in combining the most blissful, 



THE FOREIGN SCHOOLS. 39 

innocent pleasure with so much beauty as in the head of this Child, who 
is longing with the greatest eagerness for some object out of the pic- 
ture, and thus giving the mother, who is dressing it, no little trouble. 
But her countenance expresses the highest joy at the vivacity and play- 
fulness of her child. In the landscape which forms the background 
Joseph is working as a carpenter." — Waagen. 

169. Mazzolino da Ferrara, c. 1481— 1530. The Holy Family, with 
St. Nicholas of Tolentino. 

* 189. Giovanni Bellini. Portrait of Leonardo Loredano, Doge of 
Venice from 1501 to 1521. Loredano sat repeatedly to Bellini; but 
this, 'finished with marvellous detaU, is the best of his many portraits. 

626. Tommaso Guidi, commonly called Masaccio, 1 402 — 1443. 
Portrait of Himself. 

* 694. Giovanni Bellini, St. Jerome in his Study — a picture of 
exquisite beauty and finish, from the Palazzo Manfrini at Venice. 
Ascribed by Crowe and Cavalcaselle to Catena. 

756. Melozzo da Forli. Music (.?) 

Central Hall. 

639. Francesco Mantegna. Christ appearing to the Magdalen. 
769. Fra Carnovale of Urbino, fifteenth century. St. Michael and 

the Dragon. 

9 [2 — 914. Pinturicckio. The story of the patient Griselda. A 
peasant girl is married to the Marquis of Saluzzo, and after thirteen 
years of honour, having been deprived of her children, is sent back 
divorced to her father's cottage, but recalled thence to work as a 
servant m the castle, for her husband's new marriage. Submitting to 
all these trials in obedience and patience, she is restored to her children 
and reinstated by her husband in her former honours. 

729. Bartolommeo Suardi of Milan, called Bramantino from his 
master Bramante, early sixteenth century. The Adoration of the Magi. 

691. Lo Spagna. Ecce Homo. 

768. Ant. Vivarini. St. Peter and .St. Jerome. 

641. Mazzolino da Ferrara. The Woman taken in Adultery. 

648. Lorenzo di Credi. The Virgin adoring the Holy Child. 

778. Pellegrino di San Daniele. The Donor is presented to the 
Virgin by St. James. St. George is on horseback, with the dead 
Dragon at his feet. 

640. Dosso Dossi oi Ferrara, 1480 — 1545. Adoration of the Magi. 
593. Lorenzo di Credi. Madonna and Child. 

718. Heinrich de Bias, c. 1480 — 1550. The Crucifixion, with angels 
receiving the blood. 



40 WALKS IN LONDON, 

* 33. Parmigiano. The Vision of St. Jerome— painted, by order of 
Maria Bufalina, in 1527, for the Church of San Salvatore in Lauro at 
Citta di Castello. Though the artist was only in his twenty-fourth year 
when he executed it, this is a most noble picture. It is supposed to be 
that which so absorbed the painter's attention during the siege of 
Rome by the Constable de Bourbon, that he was unaware the city was 
taken till some German soldiers, bursting in to plunder his house, were 
overwhelmed with its beauty, and not only spared, but protected him. 

81. Benvemcto Tisio, called Garofalo from the pink with which he 
marked his pictures, 1481— 1559. The Vision of St. Augustine. He 
is warned by a child that his efforts to understand the mystery of the 
Trinity must be as futile as attempting to empty the ocean with a 
spoon. St. Catherine, the patron saint of theologians, stands near 
him, gazing up at the Virgin and Child surrounded by angels : the 
little red figure in the background represents St. Stephen, whose life 
and acts are set forth in the homihes of St. Augustine. From the 
Corsini Palace at Rome. 

8. Michel Angela, A Dream of Human Life. 

693. Pinturicchio. St. Catherine of Alexandria. 

632. Girolamo da Santa Croce of Venice, sixteenth century. A 
Saint reading. 

671. Garofalo. The Madonna and Child enthroned; on their left 
St. Francis and St. Anthony ; on their right St. Guglielmo and St. 
Chiara. 

702. Andrea di Luigi of Assisi, called L'lngegno, fifteenth century. 
Madonna and Child in glory. 

633. Girolamo da Santa Croce, A Saint. 

Room XVI. Peel Collection. 

864. Terhurg. The Guitar Lesson. 

889. Sir J. Reynolds. His own Portrait. 

834. Peter de Hooge. Dutch Interior. 

* 887. SirJ. Reynolds. Portrait of Dr. Johnson. 

835. P. de Hooge. Courtyard of a Dutch House. 
823. Ciiyp. Cattle. 

841. VV. Van Mieris of Leyden, 1662— 1 747. A Fish and Poultry 
Shop. 

* 849. Paul Potter, 1625 — 1654. Landscape with cattle. 

865. Vander Cappdle. Fishing Boats in a Calm. 

830. Hobbeina. The lopped Avenue, with a dyke on either side, 
le^.ding to the dull brick town of Middelharnis, the reputed birtl place 
of the artist. 



THE FOREIGN SCHOOLS. k, 

845. Caspar Natscher of AxAvrevp, ISIO — 1651. A Lady spiuaiiig. 

839. Gabriel Metsu. The Music Lesson. 

852. Rubens. The Chapeau de Foil. 

863. Tenters. Dives — " Le Mauvais Riche." 

867. Vandevelde. The Farm Cottage. 

888. Reynolds. Portrait of James Boswell. 

870. Vandevelde. A Calm. 

892. Reynolds. Robinetta. 

Room XVII. Early Italian art — indifferent specimens. 

568. School of Giotto. The Coronation of the Virgin. 

564. Margaritone d'Arezzo, 1216 — 1293. The Virgin and Child, 
with scenes from the Lives of the Saints. From the Ugo Baldi Collec- 
tion. 

565. Giovanni Gualtieri of Florence, called Cimdbue, 1240 — c. 1302. 
Madonna and Child enthroned -from the Church of Santa Croce at 
Florence. Retouched. 

215. TaddeoGaddiofY\oxenee,c.\'ifiO — 1366. Saints. 
567. Segna di Buoiiaventura of Siena, early fourteenth century. A 
Crucifix. 

579. Taddeo Gaddi. The Baptism of Christ. 

566. Duccio di Buoninsegna of Siena, 1261— c. 1339. Madonna 
and Child, with angels and saints. 

580. Jacopo di Caseniino, 13 10 — c. 1390. The Assumption of St. 
John the Evangelist and other Saints. 

570 — 578. Andrea di Clone Arcagnuolo, called Orcagna^ 1315 — c. 
1376. Scenes from the Life of Christ. 

630. Gregorio Schiavone, fifteenth century, School of Padua. 
Madonna and Child, with saints. 

276. Giotto, Florentine, 1276— 1336. Heads of SS. John and Paul— 
lom the Church of the Carmine at Florence. 

586. Fra Filippo Lippi. Madonna and Child, with angels and saints 
— supposed to have been painted by the artist in his twenty-fifth year 
for the Convent of Santo Spirito at Florence. 

248. Fra Filippo Lippi. The Vision of St. Bernard — supposed to 
have been painted for the Palazzo della Signoria at Florence. 

583. Paolo di Dono, called Paolo Uccello from his love of birds, 1396 
— 1479. The Battle of Sant Egidio {?), July 7, 1416, in which Carlo 
Malatesta, Lord of Rimini, and his nephew Galeazzo, were taken 
prisoners by Braccio di iSIontone. The beautiful young Galeazzo is 
distinguished by his floating golden hair. 

227. Cosimo Rosselli of Florence, 1439 — c. 1506. St. Jerome in 



42 IVALKS IN LONDON. 

the Desert and other saints, painted for the Ruccellai Cliapel at 
Fiesole. 

284. Bart. Vivarini of Murano, fifteenth century. The Virgin and 
Child, with St. Paul and St. Jerome. 

772. Cosimo Tura. Madonna and Child enthroned, with angels. 

Room XVIII. Chiefly Spanish. 

184. Antonij Moro (Sir Antonio More), 1512 — 1581. Portrait of 
Jeanne d'Archel, of the family of Count Egmont. 

176. Bartolome Estehan Murillo of Seville, 1618— 1682. St. John 
and the Lamb. The St. John is a Spanish peasant boy. 

* 13. Murillo. The Holy Family — painted by the artist at Cadiz, 
when sixty years old, for the family of the Marquis del Pedroso. 

* 230. Francisco Zurharan, " the Spanish Caravaggio," 1598 — 1662. 
A Franciscan Monk — a most weird picture, in which, after it is long 
gazed upon, the eyes come out and take possession of the spectator. 
From the gallery of Louis Philippe. 

741. Don Diego Velazquez de Silva of Seville, 1599 — 1660. A 
Dead Warrior— called El Orlando Muerto. 
244. Spagnoletto. Shepherd with a Lamb. 
232. Velazquez. The Nativity. 

* 74. Murillo. A laughing Beggar Boy. 

* 197. Velazquez. A Boar Hunt of Philip IV. The groups in the 
foreground, especially the dogs, most admirable. The drear\' space in 
the centre destroys the interest of the picture as a whole. From the 
Royal Palace at Madrid. 

745. Velazquez. Portrait of Philip IV. 
195. Portrait of a German Professor, 1580. 

It was near the entrance of the Park from Charing Cross 
that the first Royal Academy Exhibition of Pictures was 
held. Hogarth's " Sigismunda" and " Siege of Calais " and 
Reynolds's " Lord Ligonier " were amongst the pictures 
exhibited there. 



CHAPTER II. 

THE WEST-END. 

FROM Trafalgar Square, Pall Mall, the handsomest 
street in London, leads to the west. Its name is a 
record of its having been the place where the game of 
Palle-malle was played — a game still popular in the deserted 
streets of old sleepy Italian cities, and deriving its name 
from Palla, a ball, and Maglia a mallet. It was already 
introduced into England in the reign of James I., who (in 
his " Basilicon Doron ") recommended his son Prince Henry 
to play at it. Charles IL, who was passionately fond of the 
game, removed the site for it to St. James's Park.* 

It was across the ground afterwards set apart for Palle- 
malle, described by Le Serre as " near the avenues of the 
(St. James's) palace — a large meadow, always green, in 
which ladies walk in summ.er," that Sir Thomas Wyatt led 
his rebel troops into London in 1554, passing with little 
loss under the fire of the artillery planted on Hay Hill by 
the Earl of Pembroke, and forcing his way successfully 
through the guard drawn out to defend Charing Cross, but 

* Curious details as to the game are given in " Le Jeu de Mail, par Joseph 
Lanthier," 1717. It was played with balls made from the root of box, which 
were gradually attuned to the stroke of the mallet, and were always rubbed with 
pellitory before being put away after use. 



44 WALKS IN LONDON, 

only to be deserted by his men and taken prisoner as he 
entered the City. 

The street was not enclosed till about 1690, when it was 
at first called Catherine Street, in honour of Catherine of 
Braganza, and it still continued to be a fashionable pro- 
menade rather than a highway for carriage traffic. Thus 
Gay alludes to it — 

" O bear me to the paths of fair Pall Mall ! 
Safe are thy pavements, grateful is thy smell ! 
At distance rolls along the gilded coach, 
Nor sturdy carmen on thy walks encroach ; 
No lets would bar thy ways were chairs deny'd, 
The soft supports of laziness and pride ; 
Shops breathe perfumes, through sashes ribbons glow, 
The mutual arms of ladies and the beau." 

Trivia, bk. II. 

Club-houses are the characteristic of the street, though 
none of the existing buildings date beyond the present 
century. In the last century their place was filled by 
taverns where various literary and convivial societies had 
their meetings: Pepys in 1660 was frequently at one of 
these, " Wood's at the Pell-Mell." The first trial of street 
gas in London was made here in 1807, in a row of lamps, on 
the King's birthday, before the colonnade of Carlton House. 
Amid all the changes of the town, London-lovers have 
continued to give their best affections to Pall Mall, and 
how many there are who agree with the lines of Charles 
Morris * — 

" In town let me live, then, in town let me die ; 
For in truth I can't relish the country, not I. 
If one must have a villa in summer to dwell, 
Oh ! give me the sweet shady side of Pall Mall." 

• The genial wit, of whom Curran said, "Die when you will, Charles, you will 
die in your youth." " 



WA R WICK STREET. 45 

Entering the street by Pall Mall East, we pass, just 
beyond the rooms of the Old Water Colour Society, the 
entrance to Suffolk Street^ where Charles II. ** furnished a 
house most richly"* for his beloved Moll Davis, and where 
Pepys " did see her coach come for her to her door, a 
mighty pretty fine coach." t Here also lived Miss Esther 
Vanhomrigh, who has become, under the name of Vanessa, 
celebrated for her unhappy and ill-requited devotion to Dean 
Swift. On the ri^ht is the Gallery of British Artists, 
Suffolk Street existed as early as 1664, marking the site of 
a house of the Earls of Suffolk, but did not become im- 
portant till the Restoration, when the residence of Secretary 
Coventry gave a name to the neighbouring Coventry Street. 

On the left Cockspur Street falls into Pall Mall. At the 
end of Warwick Street, \ which opens into it, stood Warwick 
House, where Princess Charlotte was compelled by her 
father to reside, and where '' wearied out by a series of acts 
all proceeding from the spirit of petty tyranny, and each 
more vexatious than another, though none of them very 
important in itself," she determined to escape. She (July 
16, 1814) " rushed out of her residence in Warwick House, 
unattended ; hastily crossed Cockspur Street ; flung herself 
into the first hackney-coach she could find ; and drove to 
her mother's house in Connaught Place." § 

A public-house at the entrance of Warwick Street still 
bears the sign of ** The Two Chairmen," which recalls the 
habits of locomotion in the last century, when Defoe wrote — 

" I am lodged in the street called Pall Mall, the ordinary residence of 
all strangers, because of its vicinity to the Queen's Palace, the Park, the 

• Pepys, Jan 14, 1667-8. + Feb. 15, 1668-9. 

X Built 1681. Called after Sir Philip Warwick. \ Lord Brougham. 



46 WALKS IN LONDON. 

Parliament House, the theatres, and the chocolate and coffee houses, 
where the best company frequent. If you would know our manner of 
living, 'tis thus : — we rise by nine, and those that frequent great men's 
levees find entertainment at them till eleven, or, as at Holland, go to 
tea-tables. About twelve, the heau-monde assembles in several coffee 
or chocolate houses ; the best of which are the Cocoa Tree, and White's 
chocolate-houses ; St. James's, the Smyrna, Mr. Rochlbrd's, and the 
British coffee-houses ; and all these so near one anotfier, that in less 
than one hour you see the company of them all. "We are carried to 
these places in Sedan chairs, which are here very cheap, a guinea a 
week, or a shilling per hour ; and your chairmen serve you for porters 
to run on errands, as your gondoliers do at Venice." 



Passing the equestrian statue of George III., by Matthew 
Cotes, 1837, we now reach the foot of the Hayifiarket, so 
called from the market for hay and straw which was held 
here in the reign of Elizabeth, and was not finally abolished 
till 1830. On the right is the Haymarket Theatre (opened 
Dec. 1720), on the left the Italian Opera House (built in 
1790). It was between these, at the foot of the Haymarket, 
that Thomas Thynne of Longleat was murdered on Sunday, 
Feb. 12, 1 68 1, by ruffians hired by Count Konigsmarck, 
who hoped, when Thynne was out of the way, to ingratiate 
himself with his affianced bride, the rich young Lady Eliza- 
beth Percy, already, in her sixteenth year, the widow of 
Lord Ogle. The assassins employed were Vratz, a 
German ; Stern, a Swede ; and Borotski, a Pole ; but only 
the last of these fired, though no less than five of his bullets 
pierced his victim. The scene is represented on Thynne's 
monument in Westminster Abbey. The conspirators were 
taken, and tried at Hicks's Hall in Clerkenwell, where 
Konigsmarck was acquitted, but the others sentenced to 
death, and hanged in the street which was the scene of 
their crime. They were attended by Bishop Burnet, who 



PALL MALL. 47 

narrates that, in return for his religious admonitions, Vratz 
expressed his conviction that '* God would consider a 
gentleman, and deal with him suitably to the condition and 
profession he had placed him in ; and that he would not 
take it ill if a soldier who lived by his sword avenged an 
affront offered him by another." Stern, on the scaffold, 
complained that he died for a man's fortune whom he never 
spoke to, for a woman whom he never saw, and for a dead 
man whom he never had a sight of." 

[Addison Hved in the Haymarket, and wrote his " Cam- 
paign" there. On the right zx^ James Street, where James II. 
used to play in the tennis court, and Pajiton Street, so 
called from Colonel Panton, the successful gamester, 
who died in 1681. At the coriler of Market Street (lett) 
lived Hannah Lightfoot, the fair Quakeress, beloved by 
George III. Farther on the left is the entry of the little 
court called James s Market, where Richard Baxter 
preached.] 

Proceeding down Pad Mall, and passing the United 
Service Club, by Nash, 1826, we reach the opening of 
Waterloo Place, which occupies the site of Carlton House, 
built for Henry Boyle, Lord Carlton, in 1709, and 
purchased by Frederick, Prince of Wales, in 1732. His 
widow, Augusta of Saxe-Cobourg, lived here for many 
years, and died in 1772. The house was redecorated 
for the marriage of the Prince of Wales, afterwards 
George IV. Here his daughter Charlotte was born 
January 7, 1796), and married to Leopold of Saxe-Cobourg 
(May 2. 1816). Here also, in 1811, George IV. gave his 
famous banquet as Prince Regent. 

Horace Walpole was beyond measure ecstatic in his 



^8 WALKS IN LONDON. 

admiration of Carlton House, though where the money to 
pay for it was to come from he could not conceive ; " all 
the mines in Cornwall could not pay a quarter." The 
redundancy of ornament induced Bonomi to write on the 
Ionic screen facing Pall Mall the epigram — 

<* ' Care colonne, che fate quS ? * 
* Non sappiamo, in verita ! ' " 

But all its magnificence came to an end in 1827, when the 
house was pulled down, its fittings taken to Buckingham 
Palace, and its columns used in building the portico of 
the National Gallery. Its site is marked by the Column 
(124 feet high) surmounted by a Statue of Frederick, Duke of 
York, second son of George III., by Westmacott, which 
faces Regent Street. On the right is a Siattie of Lord 
Clyde. On the left is a Statue of Sir John Franklin by 
Noble. The relief on its pedestal represents the funeral 
of Franklin, with Captain Crozier reading the burial service ; 
it wonderfully appeals to human sympathies, and there is 
scarcely a moment in the day when passers-by are not 
lingering to examine it. 

We now enter upon a perfect succession of the buildings 
erected for the clubs, originally defined by Dr. Johnson as 
" assemblies of good fellows, meeting under certain con- 
ditions." They have greatly improved since those days, 
and are now the great comfort of bachelor-life in London. 
** Comme ils savent organiser le bien-etre ! " Taine justly 
exclaims with regard to them. At the angle of Waterloo 
Place is the Athenceiim, the chief literary club in London, 
built by Decimus Burton, 1829. Beyond arise, on the 
left, the Travellers' Club (by Barry, 1832) ; the Reform 



ST. JAMES'S SQUARE, 49 

Club (by Barry, 1838) ; and the Car If on Club (by 
Smirke, 1854, from St. Mark's Library at Venice), the 
famous political Conservative club founded by the Duke 
of Wellington in 1831. Beyond these, the War Office 
occupies a house originally built for Edward, Duke ot 
York, brother of George III., with an admirable medi- 
tative statue in front of it, representing Lord Herbert of 
Lea, Secretary of State for War (by Foley, 1867). Beyond 
this are the Oxford and Cambridge Club (by Smirke, 
1835 — 8) ; and the Guards' Club (by Harrison, 1850). On 
the right, opposite the War Office, is the Army ajtd Navy 
Club (by Parnell and Smith, 1851). 

(The two short streets on the right of Pall Mall lead 
into St. James's Square, which dates from the time of 
Charles IL, when the adjoining King Street and Charles 
Street were named in honour of the King, and York Street 
and Duke Street in honour of the Duke of York. In the 
centre was a Gothic conduit, which is seen in old prints and 
maps of London, with a steep gable and walls of coloured 
bricks in diamond patterns. ' Its site is now occupied by a 
statue of William III. by the younger Bacon, 1808. The 
great Duke of Ormond Hved here in Ormond House, and 
his duchess died there. No. 3 was the house of the Duke 
of Leeds. 

" When the Duke of Leeds shall married be 
To a fair young lady of high quality, 
How happy will that gentlewoman be 
In his grace of Leeds' good company ! 

She shall have aU that's fine and fair, 
And the best of silk and satin shall wear ; 
And ride in a coach to take the air, 
And have a house in St. James's Square." 
VOL. II. E 



50 WALK'S IN LONDON. 

No. 15, which belonged to Sir Philip Francis, was lent to 
Queen Caroline (1820), and was inhabited by her during 
the earlier part of her trial. No. 16 was the house of Lord 
Castlereagh, who lay in state there in 1822. No. 17, the 
Duke of Cleveland's, is an interesting old house, and con- 
tains a fine picture of Barbara, Duchess of Cleveland, by 
Sir Peter Lely. No. 21, in the south-east corner, is Norfolk 
House^ and has been inhabited by the Dukes of Norfolk 
since 1684. Hither Frederick Prince of Wales, when 
turned out of St. James's by George II., took refuge with 
his family till the purchase of Leicester House ; and here 
George III. was born, June 4, 1738, being a seven-months' 
child, and was privately baptized the same day by Seeker, 
Bishop of Oxford.) 

We may notice No. 79, Pall Mall, as occupying the site 
of the house which was given by Charles II. to Nell 
Gwynne, described by Burnet as " the indiscreetest and 
wildest creature that ever was in a court." She lived here 
from 1671 to 1687. It is still the only freehold in the 
street. 

" It was given by a long lease by Charles II. to Nell Gwyn, and 
upon her discovering it to be only a lease under the Crown, she returned 
him the lease and conveyances, saying she had always conveyed free 
under the Crown, and always would ; and would not accept it till it 
was conveyed free to her by Act of Parliament made on and for that 
purpose. Upon Nell's death it was sold, and has been conveyed free 
ever since." — Granger's Letters, p. 308. 

The garden of the house had a mount, on which Nell used 
to stand to talk over the wall to the King as he walked 
in St. James's Park. 

" 5 March, 1671. — I walk'd with him (Charles II.) thro' St. James's 
Parke to the gardens, where I both saw and heard a very familiar dis 



SCHOMBERG HOUSE. 51 

course between the King and Mrs. Nellie, as they cal'd an impudent 
comedian, she looking out of her garden on a tenace on the top of the 
wall, and the king standing on ye greene walke under it. I was 
heaitily sorry at this scene. Thence the king walk'd to the Duchess of 
Cleaveland, another lady of pleasure and curse of our nation." — 
Evelyn. 

This neighbourhood, so close to the palace, was naturally 
popular with the mistresses of the royal Stuarts. Barbara 
Palmer, Duchess of Cleveland, and Hortensia Mancini, 
Duchess of Mazarin, both lived at one time in Pall Mall, 
and Moll Davis in St. James's Square. Arabella Churchill 
and Catherine Sedley, mistresses of James II., also lived 
in St. James's Square. 

Nos. 81 and 82 are portions of Schomberg House, built 
for the great Duke of Schomberg, who was killed in his 
eighty-second year at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690, and 
over whose death William III. wept, saying, '"'I have lost 
my father."* It was afterwards inhabited by John Astley 
the painter, who placed the relief over the entrance. He 
divided the house and after his death the central compart- 
ment was occupied by Cosway the miniature painter. 
Gainsborough lived in one of the wings of the house from 
1778 to 1788, and Sir Joshua Reynolds sat to him for his 
portrait there. It was there also, "in a second-floor 
chamber," that Sir Joshua was present (July, 1788) at the 
death-bed of Gainsborough, and heard his last words, " We 
are all going to heaven, and Vandyke is of the company." 
Much of the house has been demolished, but Gainsborough's 
wing remains. 

On the opposite side of the street was the "Star and 
Garter," where the Literary Club had the meetings which 

• Lettres au Roi de Danem.irk, par Jean Pa< en de la Fouleresse, 1688—92. 



52 WALKS IN LONDON. 

Swift describes in a letter to Stella ; and where (Jan. 24, 
1765) William, fifth Lord Byron, having a quarrel with his 
neighbour, Mr. Chaworth, as to which had most game on 
his estate, challenged him, fought him by the light of a 
single tallow candle, and gave him a wound which proved 
fatal the next day, and for which he was tried in West- 
minster Hall. 

On the left is Marlborough House^ built (1709 — 10) by Sir 
Christopher Wren for the great Duke of Marlborough, on an 
offset of the Park given by Queen Anne. The Duke died in 
the house in 1722, and here also died his famous duchess, 

Sarah, 

" The wisest fool that ever Time has made," 

in spite of her retort when told, in her eighty-fourth year, 
that she must either be blistered or die — " I won't be 
blistered, and I won't die." She kept up the utmost pomp 
to the last, and talked of her " neighbour George " at St. 
James's. The bad entrance that still exists testifies to the 
spite of Sir Robert Walpole, who, when he found the old 
duchess desirous of making a suitable approach to her 
house, bought up the leases of the encroaching houses to 
prevent her. The house remained in the Marlborough 
family till it was purchased for Princess Charlotte in 181 7. 
It was the London residence of Queen Adelaide in her 
widowhood, and was settled upon Albert Edward, Prince of 
Wales, in 1850. The saloon still contains a number of 
very interesting pictures by Laguerre of the vict^nes of the 
Duke of Marlborough, George IV. made a plan for con- 
necting Marlborough House with Carlton House by a 
gallery of portraits of the British Sovereigns and historical 
personages connected with them. 



ST. y AMES'S PALACE, 



53 



The building which projects into the grounds of Marl- 
borough House, and which is entered from the roadway 
into the Park on the left of St. James's Palace, is interest- 
ing as the Roman CathoHc Chapel built by Charles I. for 
Henrietta Maria, the erection of which gave such offence 
to his subjects. 




Gateway, St. James's Palace. 



The picturesque old brick gateway of St. James's Palace 
still looks up St. James's Street, one of the most precious 
relics of the past in London, and enshrining the memory of 
a greater succession of historical events than any other 
domestic building in England, Windsor Castle not excepted. 
The site of the palace was occupied, even before the Coi.- 



54 WALKS IN LONDON. 

quest, by a hospital dedicated to St. James, for " fourteen 
maidens that were leprous." Henry VIII. obtained it by 
exchange, pensioned off the sisters, and converted the 
hospital into " a fair mansion and park,"* in the same year 
in which he was married to Anne Boleyn, who was com- 
memorated here with him in love-knots, now almost oblite- 
rated, upon the side doors of the gateway, and in the 
letters " H. A." on the chimney-piece of the presence- 
chamber or tapestry room. Holbein is sometimes said to 
have been the king's architect here, as he was at White- 
hall. Henry can seldom have lived here, but hither his 
daughter, Mary I., retired, after her husband Philip left 
England for Spain, and here she died, Nov. 17, 1558. 

"It is said that in the beginning of her sickness, her friends, sup- 
posing King Philip's absence afflicted her, endeavoured by all means 
to divert her melancholy. But all proved in vain : and the Queen, 
abandoning herself to despair, told them she should die, though they 
were yet strangers to the cause of her death ; but if they would know 
it hereafter, they must dissect her, and they would find Calais at her 
heart; intimating that the loss of that place was her death's wound." — 
Godwin. 

James I., in 16 10, settled St. James's on his eldest son, 
Prince Henry, who kept his court here for two years with 
great magnificence, having a salaried household of no less 
than two hundred and ninety-seven persons. Here he 
died in his nineteenth year, Nov, 6, 1612. Upon his 
death, St. James's was given to his brother Charles, who 
frequently resided here after his accession to the throne, 
and here Henrietta Maria gave birth to Charles II., 
James II., and the Princess EHzabeth. In 1638 the palace 
was given as a refuge to the queen's mother, Marie de' Medici, 

* Holinshed. 



^7: JAMES'S PALACE. 55 

who lived here for three years, with a pension of ;^3,ooo a 
month ! Hither Charles I. was brought from Windsor as the 
prisoner of the Parliament, his usual attendants, with one 
exception, being debarred access to him, and being replaced 
by common soldiers, who sat smoking and drinking even 
in the royal bedchamber, never allowing him a moment's 
privacy, and hence he was take a in a sedan chair to his 
trial at Whitehall. 

" On Sunday the 28th (after his condemnation) he was attended by 
a guard from Whitehall to St. James's, where Juxon, Bishop of Lon- 
don, preached before him on these words (Rom. ii. 16), "In the day 
when God shall judge the secrets of all men by Jesus Christ, according 
to my gospel." After the service the King received the Sacrament, and 
he spent the rest of the day in private devotion, and in conferences with 
the Bishop. The next day Charles underwent the cruel pang of sepa- 
rating from his two children (who alone were in England), Henry, Duke 
of Gloucester, who was about seven years of age, and the Princess 
Elizabeth, who was about thirteen. Their interview with him was long, 
tender, and afflicting. He bade the Lady Elizabeth tell her mother 
that his thoughts had never strayed from her, and that his love sliould 
be the same to the last, and begged her to remember to tell her brother 
James ' that it was his father's last desire that after his death he should 
no longer look upon his brother Charles merely as his elder brother, but 
should be obedient to him as his sovereign ; and that they should both 
love one another, and forgive their father's enemies. 'But,' said the 
King to her, 'sweetheart, you will forget this?' 'No,' said she, 'I 
will never forget it as long as I live.' He prayed her not to grieve for 
him, for he should die a glorious death ; it being for the laws and 
liberties of the land, and for maintaining the true Protestant religion. 
He charged her to forgive those people, but never to trust them ; for 
they had been most false to him, and to those that gave them power, 
and he feared also to their own souls. He then urged her to read 
Bishop Andrewes' 'Sermons,' Hooker's 'Ecclesiastical Polity,' and 
Archbishop Laud's Book against Fisher, which would strengthen 
her faith, and confirm her in a pious attachment to the Church of 
England, and an aversion from Popery. Then taking the Duke of 
Gloucester on his knee, the King said to him, ' Sweetheart, now they 
will cut off thy father's head ' (upon which words the child looked very 
earnestly and steadfastly at him). ' Mark, child, what 1 say, they will 



$6 WALKS IN LONDON. 

cut off my head, and perhaps make thee a king : but mark me, you 
must not be a king, so long as your brothers, Charles and James, do 
live ; for they will cut off your brothers' heads when they can catch 
them, and cut off thy head at last too ; and therefore I charge you do 
not be made a king by them : ' at which the child said earnestly, * I 
will be torn in pieces first,' which ready reply from so young an infant 
filled the King's eyes with tears of admiration and pleasure." — Trial of 
Charles /., Family Library, xxxi. 

On the following day the king was led away from St. 
James's to the scaffold. His faithful friends Henry Rich, 
Earl of Holland ; the Duke of Hamilton and Lord Capel ; 
were afterwards imprisoned in the palace and suffered like 
their master. 

Charles H., who was born at St. James's (May 29, 1630), 
resided at Whitehall, giving up the palace to his brother 
the Duke of York (also born here, Oct. 25, 1633), but 
reserving apartments for his mistress, the Duchess of Maza- 
rin, who at one time resided there with a pension of ^^4,000 
a year. Here Mary II. was born, April 30, 1662 ; and here 
she was married to William of Orange, at eleven at night, Nov. 
4, 1677. Here for many years the Duke and Duchess of 
York secluded themselves with their children, in mourning 
and sorrow, on the anniversary of his father's murder. 
Here, also, Anne Hyde, Duchess of York, died, March 31, 
1671, asking "What is truth?" of Blandford, Bishop of 
Worcester, who came to visit her. 

In St. James's Palace also, James's second wife, Mary of 
Modena, gave birth to her fifth child. Prince James Edward 
(''the Old Pretender") on June 10, 1688. 

" There, on the morning of Sunday, the tenth of June, a day long 
kept sacred by the too faithfiil adherents of a bad cause, was bom the 
most unfortunate of princes, destined to seventy-seven years of exile 



ST. JAMES'S PALACE. 57 

and wandering, of vain projects, of honours more galling than insults, 
and of hopes such as make the heart sick." — Macaulay, ch. viii. 

" The king rose between seven and eight, and went to his own side 
of the palace. About a quarter of an hour after, the queen sent for 
him in hot hasle, and requested to have every one summoned whom he 
wished to be witnesses of the birth of their child. The first person who 
obeyed the summons was Mrs, Margaret Dawson, one of her bed- 
chamber women, formerly in the serv-ice of Anne Hyde, Duchess of 
York ; she had been present at the birth of all the king's children, 
including the Princess Anne of Denmark. The bed was then made 
ready for her majesty, who was very chilly, and wished it to be warmed. 
Accordingly, a warming-pan full of hot coals was brought into the 
chamber, with which the bed was warmed previously to the queen 
entering it. From this circumstance, simple as it was, but unusual, the 
absurd talk was fabricated that a spurious child was introduced into the 
queen's bed. Mrs. Dawson afterwards deposed, on oath, that she saw 
fire in the warming-pan when it was brought into her majesty's cham- 
ber, the time being then about eight o'clock, and the birth of the 

prince did not take place until ten After her majesty was in 

bed, the king came in, and she asked him if he had sent for the queen 
dowager. He replied, 'I have sent for eveiybody,' and so, indeed, it 
seemed ; for besides the queen dowaf:;er and her ladies, and the ladies of 
the queen's household, the state officers of the palace, several of the 
royal physicians, and the usual professional attendants, there were 
eighteen members of the Privy Council, who stood at the foot of the 
bed. There were in all sixty-seven persons present. Even the 
Princess Anne, in her coarse, cruel letters to her sister on this sub- 
ject, acknowledged that the queen was much distressed by the presence 
of so many men, especially by that of the Lord Chancellor Jeifreys." — 
Strickland'' s Qtceens of Eti gland. 



It was to St. James's that William III. came on his first 
arrival in England, and he frequently resided there after- 
wards, dining in public, with the Duke of Schomberg seated 
at his right hand and a number of Dutch guests, but on no 
occasion was any English gentleman invited. In the latter 
part of William's reign the palace was given up to the 
Princess Anne, who had been born there, Feb. 6, 1665, and 
married there to Prince George of Den nark, July 28, 1683. 



58 WALKS IN LONDON. 

She was residing here when Bishop Burnet brought her the 
news of William's death and her own accession. 

George I., on his arrival in England, came at once to St. 
James's. 

"♦This is a strange country,' he remarked afterwards; 'the first 
morning after my arrival at St. James's, I looked out of the window, 
and saw a park with walks, and a canal, which they told me were mine. 
The next day Lord ChetwjTid, the ranger of my park, sent me a fine 
brace of carp out of my canal ; and I was told I must give five guinea . 
to Lord Chetwynd's servant for bringing me my own carp, out of my 
own canal, in my own park." — Walpole's Reminiscences. 

The Duchess of Kendal, the king's mistress, had rooms 
in the palace, and, towirds the close of his reign, George I. 
assigned appartments there on the ground-floor to a fresh 
favourite. Miss Anne Brett. When the king left for 
Hanover, Miss Brett had a door opened from her rooms to 
the royal gardens, which the king's grand-daughter, Princess 
Anne, who was residing in the palace, indignantly ordered 
to be walled up. Miss Brett had it opened a second time, 
and the quarrel was at its height, when the news of the king's 
death put an end to the power of his mistress. With the 
accession of George II. the Countesses of Yarmouth and 
Suffolk took possession of the apartments of the Duchess 
of Kendal. As Prince of Wales, George II. had resided in 
the palace, till a smouldering quarrel with his father came 
to a crisis over the christening of one of the royal children, 
and the next day he was put under arrest, and ordered 
to leave St. James's with his family the same evening. 
Wilhelmina Caroline of Anspach, the beloved queen of 
George II., died in the palace, Nov. 20, 1737, after an 
agonizing illness, endured with the utmost fortitude and 
consideration for all around her. 



ST, JAMES'S PALACE. 59 

Of the daughters of George II. and Queen Caroline, 
Anne, the eldest, was married at St, James's to the Prince 
of Orange, Nov. 1733, urged to the alliance by her desire 
for power, and answering to her parents, when they reminded 
her of the hideous and ungainly appearance of the bride- 
groom, " I would marry him, even if he were a baboon ! " 
The marriage, however, was a happy one, and a pleasant 
contrast to that of her younger sister Mary, the king's fourth 
daughter, who was married here to the brutal Frederick of 
Hesse Cassel, June 14, 1771. The third daughter, Caroline, 
died at St. James's, Dec. 28, 1757, after a long seclusion 
consequent upon the death of John, Lord Harvey, to whom 
she was passionately attached. 

George I. and George II. used, on certain days, to play 
at Hazard at the grooms' postern at St. James's, and the 
name " Hells," as applied to modern gaming-houses, is 
derived from that given to the gloomy room used by the 
royal gamblers.* 

The northern part of the palace, beyond the gateway 
(inhabited in the reign of Victoria by the Duchess of 
Cambridge), was built for the marriage of Frederick Prince 
of Wales. 

The State Apartments (which those who frequent levees 
and drawing-rooms have abundant opportunities of survey- 
ing) are handsome, and contain a number of good royal 
portraits. 

The Chapel Royal^ on the right on entering the 
" Colour Court," has a carved and painted ceiling of 1540. 
Madame d'Arblay describes the pertinacity of George III. 
in attending service here in bitter November weather, when 

• Theodore Hook. 



6o WALKS IN LONDON, 

the queen and court at length left the king, his chaplain, 
and equerry "to freeze it out together." There is still a 
full choral service here at eight a.m. and one p.m., when, on 
payment of 2S., any one may occupy the " seats of nobility " 
and say their prayers on crimson cushions. Bishop Burnet's 
complaint to the Princess Anne of the ogling which went on 
here during Divine service drew down the ballad attributed 
to Lord Peterborough — 

" When Burnet perceived that the beautiful dames, 
Who flock'd to the chapel of hilly St. James, 
On their lovers alone their kind looks did bestow, 
And smiled not on him while he bellow'd below. 

To the Princess he went, 

With pious intent, 
This dangerous ill to the Church to prevent. 
* Oh, madam,' he said, • our religion is lost, 
If the ladies thus ogle the knights of the toast. 
These practices, madam, my preaching disgrace : 
Shall laymen enjoy the first rights of my place ? 
Then all may lament my condition so hard, 
Who thrash in the pulpit without a reward. 

Then pray condescend 

Such disorders to end. 
And to the ripe vineyard the labourers send, 
To build up the seats, that the beauties may see 
The face of no bawling pretender but me.' 
The Princess, by rude importunity press'd, 
Though she laugh'd at his reasons, allow'd his request; 
And now Britain's nymphs, in a Protestant reign, 
Are box'd up at prayers like the virgins in Spain." 

When Queen Caroline (wife of George II.) asked Mr. 
Whiston what fault people had to find with her conduct, he 
replied that the fault they most complained of was her 
habit of talking in chapel. "She promised amendment, 
but proceeding to ask what other faults were objected to 



BRIDGEWATER HOUSE, 6l 

her, he replied, * When your Majesty has amended this I'll 
tell you of the next.' "* 

It was in this chapel that the colours taken from James II. 
at the Battle of the Boyne were hung up by his daughter 
Mary, an unnatural exhibition of triumph which shocked 
the Londoners. Besides that of Queen Anne,f a number of 
royal marriages have been solemnised here ; those of the 
daughters of George II., of Frederick Prince of Wales to 
Augusta of Saxe Cobourg, of George IV. to Caroline of 
Brunswick, and oi Queen Victoria to Prince Albert. 

The Garden at the back of St. James's Palace has a private 
entrance to the Park. It was as he was alighting from his 
carriage here, August 2, 1786, that George III. was attacked 
with a knife by the insane Margaret Nicholson. "The 
bystanders were proceeding to wreak summary vengeance 
on the (would-be) assassin, when the King generously inter- 
fered in her behalf. * The poor creature,' he exclaimed, 
' is mad : do not hurt her; she has not hurt me.' He then 
stepped forward and showed himself to the populace, 
assuring them that he was safe and uninjured." | 

Cleveland Row (where John Selwyn, Marlborough's aide- 
de-camp, and his son, George Selwyn, lived, and where 
the latter died, June 25, 1791) now leads to Bridgewater 
House (Earl of Ellesmere), built 1847 — 9 by Barry, on 
the site of Cleveland House, once the residence of 
Barbara Villiers, Duchess of Cleveland, having before that 
belonged to the great Earl of Clarendon, and afterwards to the 
Earls of Bridgewater. The principal windows bear the mono- 
gram of EE on their pediments, and, on the panel beneath, 

• Art. Whiston, " Biog. Brit.," vi. 4214. 
t Mary II. was married in her bedchambar. 
X Jesse, " Memoirs ot George III." 



62 WALKS IN LONDON. 

the Bridgewater motto — " Sic donee." The Bridgeufater 
Picture Gallery can generally be visited on Wednesdays and 
Saturdays, but the pictorial gems of the house are all con- 
tained in the dwelling-rooms on the ground-floor, and can 
only be seen by an especial permission from its master. In 
the centre of the house is a great hall, surrounded, on the 
upper floor, by an arcaded gallery, which contains, turning 
left from the head of the stairs — 

63 — 6g. Nicholas Poussin. The Seven Sacraments — from the 
Orleans Gallery. A similar set of pictures, by the same master, is at 
Belvoir. 

76. Annibale Carracci. St. Gregory at Prayer, surrounded by angels 
— a dull picture painted for the Church of St. Gregorio at Rome. 

244. Andrea del Sarto. Holy Family. 

102. Lodflvico Carracci. The Descent from the Cross. 

The shadows are too black, but "for the taste of form, the happy 
chiaro-oscuro, the extreme and almost unique verity, the head, body, 
arms, nay, indeed, the whole Christ, is of the utmost conceivable 
perfection, whether unitedly or separately considered ; in like manner, 
the feet also, and the beautiful head of the Magdalen." — Barry. 

40. Tintoret. The Entombment. 

P. S. Weit. The Marys at the Sepulchre — a picture well known 
from engravings. 

105. Salvator Rosa. Jacob and his Flocks. 

The Picture Gallery is crowded with pictures, hung so 
entirely without reason that they are for the most part 
mere wall decoration. Two-thirds are so high up that it is 
impossible to see them, and nothing is "on the Hne." 
This fine room is spoilt by the lowness of the dado. We 
may notice — 

Left Wall. 

17. Titian. Diana and Actseon. " Titianus F." is inscribed in gold 
letters on a pilaster. 

130. Ary de Voys. A Yoimg Man with a Book — a small picture by 
a very rare master. 



BRIDGEWATER HOUSE. 63 

27. Guercino. Da\dd and Abigail — a coarse ugly picture from the 
gallery of Cardinal Mazarin. 

18. Titiari. The Fable of Calisto — from the Orleans Gallery; 
painted, with its companion picture, according to Vasari, for Philip II. 
of Spain, when the master was in his seventieth year. 

130. Tenters. The Alchemist — inscribed 1649. A wonderful pic- 
ture, but constantly repeated by the master. 

mght Wall. 

196, Vandevelde. The Ri^ng of the Gale at the Entrance of the 
Texel. 

1^^. Jan Steen. A Village School. 

168. Rembrandt. A Child saying its Prayers at an Old Woman's 
Knees. This little picture is absurdly called " Hannah and Samuel." 

ICI. Annibale Carracci. Danae — from the Orleans Gallery. 

78. Paul Veronese. The Judgment of Solomon. 

Returning to the Ground Floor — 

Room I. 

38. Raffaelle {J). Madonna and Child, " La plus belle des Vierges " 
—from the Orleans Gallery, much retouched. There are many repe- 
titions of this picture : the best is in the gallery at Naples. 

* 35. Raffaelle. *' La Vierge au Palmier " — a beautiful circular 
picture. The Virgin has wound her veil around the infant Saviour, to 
whom St. Joseph, kneeling, gives some flowers. Supposed to have 
been painted at Florence for Taddeo Taddi in 1506. 

'• The following anecdote of this picture was related to the Marquis 
of Stafford by the Duke of Orleans when on a visit to England. It 
happened once, amidst the various changes of the world, that this 
picture fell to the portion of two old maids. Both having an equal 
right, and neither choosing to yield, they compromised the matter by 
cutting it in two. In this state the two halves were sold to one pur- 
chaser, who tacked them together as well as he could, and sent them 
ftirther into the world. The transfer from canvas to wood has 
obliterated every trace by which the truth of this tale might be 
corroborated." * — Passavaitt. 

37. Raffaelle {?). " La Madonna del Passeggio." The Holy Family 
walking in a green landscape. Passavant and Kugler ascribe this 
picture to Francesco Penni. It is of exquisite beauty— the children 

• Hazlitt asserts that the join may be detected, on careful inspection, passing 
through the body of the Child, and only just missing the forehead ol the Virgin. 



64 WALKS IN LONDON. 

especially graceful. Philip II. of Spain gave the picture to the Duke of 
Urbino, who gave it to the Emperor Rudolph II. Gustavus Adolphus 
carried it off from Prague to Sweden. It was inherited by his daughter 
Christina, who took it to Rome, where it was purchased, after her 
death, by the Duke of Bracciano. From his collection it was purchased 
by the Regent Duke of Orleans. Many repetitions are in existence. 

48. Lodovico Carracci. St. Catherine sees the Virgin and Child in 
a Vision. The saint recalls the work of Correggio, whom Lodovico 
especially studied and imitated. 

93. Salvator Rosa. " Les Augures "-^a very beautiful and unusually 
quiet work of the master. 

* 77. Titian. The Three Ages of Life. 

" This is one of the most beautiful idyllic groups of modem creation, 
and the spectator involuntarily partakes of the dreamlike feeling which 
it suggests." — Kugler. 

" This picture is a piece of poetry in the truest sense : it is like a 
Greek lyric or idyll ; while the melting harmony of the colour is to the 
significance of the composition what music is to the song." — Mrs. 
yameson. 

13. Guido Rent. The Infant Christ asleep upon the Cross — a lovely 
Uttle picture. 

36. Raffaelle. "La Vierge au Linge" — a replica of the picture in 
the Louvre. 

200. A. Cuyp. Milking. 

30. Domenichitto. The Cross-bearing. 

J^oom II. 

15. Tintoret. Portrait of a Venetian Nobleman, 1588. 

* 216. A. Cuyp. The Landing of Prince Maurice at Dort — a 
noble, sunlit, and beautiful picture, the water especially limpid and 
transparent. 

198. Terhurg. " Conseil Patemel." The girl in white satin is 
especially characteristic of the master, who loved to give thus his chief 
and harmonious light : her face betrays the feeling of shame with which 
she hears her father's reproof. There is an inferior repetition of this 
picture in the gallery at Amsterdam, and another at Berlin. 

205. Dohson. Portrait of John Cleveland, the poet-friend of 
Charles I., for whose cause he was imprisoned by Cromwell. 

II. Claude. Demosthenes on the Seashore — a lonely figure on 
the shore of a deep blue sea, illumined by the morning sun. 

41. Claude. Moses and the Burning Bush — the incident subordi- 
nate to the wooded landscape. 



STAFFORD HOUSE. 65 

32. Velazquez. A son of the Duke of Olivares — a noble, though 
anfinished portrait. 

120. Sir J. Reynolds. Full-length Portrait of a Lady. 

Room III. 

23. Vandyke, Virgin and Child — a careful example of a picture 
frequently repeated by the master. 

147. A. Cuyp. Cattle, with a cowherd playing on his flute. 

Colonel Blood, who afterwards became famous for his 
plot to seize the Crown Jewels, made his audacious attempt 
on the Duke of Ormond as he was returning to Cleve- 
land House. At the end of Cleveland Row, on the left, 
is the approach to Stafford House (Duke of Sutherland), 
built by B. Wyatt for the Duke of York, second son of 
George III., on the site of " the Queen's Library," erected 
for Caroline of Anspach. Its hall and staircase, by C. Barry ^ 
perfect in proportions and harmonious in their beautiful 
purple and grey colouring, are the best specimens of scagliola 
decoration in England. The noble collection of pictures, 
greatly reduced in importance through the sale of several 
fine works by the present owner, is scattered through the 
different rooms of the house, and can only be seen by 
special permission. Amongst the pictures deserving notice 
are — 

Ante Dining Room, 

Landseer. Lady Evelyn Gower (afterwards Lady Blantyre) and the 
Marquis of Stafford, as children. 

Da7ihy. The Passage of the Red Sea. 

Dmifig Room. 

Lawrence. Harriet Elizabeth, secona Duchess of Sutherland, with her 
eldest daughter, Lady Elizabeth Gower, afterwards Duchess of Argyle. 
Pordenone. The Woman taken in Adultery. 
VOL. II. F 



66 WALKS IN LONDON. 

Yellow Drawing Room. 

Miirillo. SS. Justina and Rufina, the potter's daughters of Triana, 
martyred A.D. 304 for refusing to make earthenware idols. They are 
painted as simple Spanish inuchachas, with the alcarrazas, or earthen- 
ware pots, of the country. From the Soult Collection, 

Ante Yellow Drawing Room. 

Breckelencamp. An Old Woman's Grace. 
Tintoret. A Consistory of Cardinals. 

Little Drawing Room. 

Hogarth. Portrait of Mr. Porter of Lichfield. 

Reynolds. Portrait of Dr. Johnson, without his wig, and very blind. 

Passage. 
The Marriage of Henry VT. — a curious and interesting picture. 

Picture Gallery. — (In the central compartment of the 
ceiling is St. Crisogono supported by angels, a fine work 
of Guercino from the soffita of the saint's church in the 
Trastevere at Rome.) 

Spagnoletto. Christ and the Disciples at Emmaus. 
Alonzo Cano. God the Father— glorious in colour. 
Vandyke. Portrait of a Student. 

Velazquez. The Duke of Gandia at the door of the Convent of St. 
Ognato in Biscay — a poor work of the master. 

* Moroni. Portrait of a Jesuit - the masterpiece of the gallery. 
Titian. The Education of Cupid — from the Odescalchi Collection. 
Guercino. St. Gregory the Great. 

* Vandyke. A noble Portrait of Thomas Howard, Lord Arundel, 
the great collector, seated in an arm-chair; painted 1635. 

Honthorst. Christ before Pilate — a really grand work of the master. 
From the Palazzo Giustiniani. 

Rubens. Sketch for the Marriage of Marie de Medicis in the Louvre. 

Philippe de Champagne. Portrait of the Minister Colbert. 

Correggio. The Muleteer — said to have been painted as a sign- 
board, to discharge a tavern-bill. Once in the collection of Queen 
Christina, and afterwards in the Orleans Gallery. 



STAFFORD HOUSE. 67 

Paul de la Roche. Lord Strafford receiving the Blessing of Arch- 
bishop Laud on his way to Execution. 

Alhef-t Durer. The Death of the Virgin. 

MurilLo. Abraham and the Angels — who are represented simply as 
thiee young men. From the Soult Collection. 

* Raffaelle. The Cross-bearing — painted for Cardinal Giovanni de' 
Medici (afterwards Leo X.), and long over a private altar of the Palazzo 
Medici, afterwards Ricciardi, at Florence. 

* Murillo. The Prodigal Son — a very noble picture from the Soult 
Collection. 

Carlo Maratti. St. Anne teaching the Virgin to read — a very pretty 
little picture. 

The Green Velvet Drawing Room contains — 

Two chairs which belonged to Marie Antoinette in the Petit Trianon, 
and two admirable studies by Fra Bartolommeo and Paul Veronese. A 
picture of Charles I. and Henrietta Maria, by Vandyke, came from 
Strawberry HUl. 

From St. James's Palace, St. James's Street, built in 1670, 
and at first called Long Street, leads to Piccadilly. From 
its earliest days it has been poptilar. 

" The Campus Martins of St. James's Street, 
Where the beaux cavalry pace to and fro. 
Before they take the field in Rotten Row." 

Sheridan, 

On the left, the first building of importance is the Con- 
servative Club (the second Tory club), built by Smirke and 
Basevi, 1845, ^^d occupying partly the site of the old 
Thatched House Tavern, celebrated for its literary meet- 
ings, and partly that of the house in which Edward Gibbon, 
the historian of the Roman Empire, died Jan. 16, 1794. 
No. 64 was the Cocoa-Tree Tavern, mentioned by 
Addison as " a place where his face is known." No. 69 is 
Arthur s, so called from the proprietor of White's Chocolate 
House, who died in 17 61 : the celebrated Kitty Fisher 



68 WALKS IN LONDON. 

was maintained by a subscription of the whole club at 
Arthur's ! 

On the right, beyond No. 8, where Lord Byron was 
living in i8i i, is the opening of King Street, once celebrated 
as containmg " Almack's," which, opened in 1765, continued 
to be the fashionable house of entertainment through the 
early part of the present century, when it figures in most of 
the novels of the time. But, as " the palmy days of exclu- 
siveness" passed away, it deteriorated, and now, as Willis's 
Rooms, is used for tradesmen's balls. Close by is the St. 
James's Theatre, No. 16 is the house to which Napoleon III. 
drew the especial attention of the Empress, on his triumphal 
progress through London as a royal guest, because it had 
been the home of his exile : a plate in the wall records his 
residence there. 

[Out of King Street open Bury (Berry) Street and Duke 
Street, ever-crowded nests of bachelors' lodgings, though 
the prices are rather higher now than they were (17 10) when 
Swift complained to Stella from Bury Street — " I have the 
first-floor, a dining-room, and bedchamber, at eight shilHngs 
a week, plaguy dear.'' Horace Walpole narrates how he 
stood in Bury Street in the snow, in his slippers and an 
embroidered suit, to watch a fire at five o'clock in the 
morning.] 

No. 60, on the right of St. James's Street, is Brooks's Club 
(Whig), built by Holland, I'l'iZ. No. 57 is the New Uni- 
versity Club. 

On the east side of the street, No. 28, is Boodles, the 
country gentleman's club — " Every Sir John belongs to 
Boodle's." No. 29 was the house where Gilray the carica- 
turist committed suicide by throwing himself from an upper 



ARLINGTON STREET. tg 

window. No. 37-38 is White's (Tory), built by Wyati, the 
successor of White's Chocolate House (established in 1698),"^' 
celebrated for the bets and betting duels of the last century, 
when it had the reputation of " the most fashionable hell in 
London." Walpole tells, in illustration of the overwhelming 
mania for gambling there, that when a man fell into a fit 
outside the door, bets were taken as to whether he was 
dead ; and when a surgeon wished to save his life by 
bleeding him, the bettors furiously interposed that they 
would have no foul play of that kind, and that he was to 
let the man alone. The fire, in which Mrs. Arthur, wife 
of the proprietor, leaped out of a second-floor window upon 
a feather bed unhurt, is commemorated by Hogarth in 
Plate VI. of the " Rake's Progress." 

On the left is St. James s I lace, where Thomas Parnell 
the poet lived ; also, for a time, Addison ; and Samuel 
Rogers, from 1808 till he died in his ninety-third year, 
Dec. 18, 1855. In Park Place, the next turn on the left, 
Hume the historian lived in 1769. Then Bennet Street 
leads into Arlington Street, the two streets commemorating 
the Bennets, Earls of Arlington. In Arlington Street lived 
Lady Mary Wortley Montague, in the house of her father, the 
Marquis of Dorchester. Here also (No. 5) was the town 
house of Sir Robert Walpole, who died in it ( 1 745), leaving 
it to his son Horace, who lived in it till 1779. He had 
previously resided in No. 24, where the quaint pillared 
drawing-room is represented in the second scene of the 
" Marriage k la Mode." It was in Arlington Street that (in 
the winter of 1800-1) Lord and Lady Nelson had their final 

• White's Chocolate House and St. James's Palace are represented in Plate IV 
of Hogarth's " Rake's Progress." 



70 WALKS IN LONDON. 

quarrel on the subject of Lady Hamilton, after which they 
never lived together. In No. i6, the house of the Duke of 
Rutland, Frederick Duke of York died, Jan. 5, 1827. 

On the opposite side of St. James's Street opens y"^r;/rj/;/ 
Street, which (with St. Alban's Place) commemorates Henry 
Jermyn, Earl of St. Alban's,* the chamberlain of Henrietta 
Maria, whom scandal asserted to have become her husband 
after the execution of Charles I. The great Duke of Marl- 
borough was living here, 1665 — 81, as the handsome 
Colonel Churchill. It was in the St. James's Hotel in this 
street that Sir Walter Scott spent some of the last weeks of 
his life in 1832, and thence that he set off on July 7 for 
Abbotsford, where he died on July 21. 

St. James's Street falls into the important street of 
Piceadilly, which is generally said to derive its queer 
name from ''piccadillies," the favourite turn-down collars 
of James I., which we see in Cornelius Jansen's pic- 
tures. These collars, however, were not introduced before 
16 1 7, and in 1596 we find Gerard, the author of the 
" Herball," already speaking of gathering bugloss in the dry 
ditches of " Piccadille." Jesse f ingeniously suggests that the 
fashionable collar may have received its name first from 
being worn by the dandies who frequented Piccadilla 
House, which, probably as early as Elizabeth's time, was a 
fashionable place of amusement (on the site of Panton 
Square), and that the word, as applied to the house, may 
come from the Spanish peccadillo, literally meaning a 
venial fault. Clarendon (1641) speaks of Picccadilly Hall 
as " a fair house for entertainment and gaming, with hand- 

• His arms are over the south entrance of St. James's Church. It was oil 
nephew who gave a name to Dover Street. 
+ Memorials of London, i. 6. 



S2. JAMES'S, PICCADILLY. 71 

some gravel walks with shade, and where was an upper 
and lower bowling green, whither very many of the nobility 
and gentry of the best quality resorted, both for exercise 
and conversation." Sir John Suckling the poet was one of 
its gambling frequenters, and Aubrey narrates how his sisters 
came crying " to Peccadillo Bowling-green, for the fear he 
should lose all their portions.'' 

Turning eastwards, we find, on the right, St. James s 
Churchy built by Wren, 1684. Hideous to ordinary eyes, 
this church is still admirable in the construction of its roof, 
which causes the interior to be considered as one of the 
architect's greatest successes. The marble font is an 
admirable work of Gibbons; the stem represents the Tree 
of Knowledge, round which the Serpent twines, who offers 
the apple to Eve, standing with Adam beneath. The organ 
was ordered by James II. fot his Catholic chapel at White- 
hall, and was given to this church by his daughter Mary. 
The carving here was greatly admired by Evelyn. 

"Dec. 10, 1684. — I went to see the new church at St. James's, 
elegantly built. The altar was especially adorned, the white marble 
inclosure curiously and richly carved, the flowers and garlands about 
the walls by Mr. Gibbons, in wood ; a pelican, with her young at her 
breast, just over the altar in the carv'd compartment and border in- 
vironing the purple velvet fringed with IHS richly embroidered, and 
most noble plate, were given by Sir R. Geare, to the value (as is said) 
of;^200. There was no altar anywhere in England, nor has there been 
any abroad, more richly adorned." — Diary, 

The Princess Anne of Denmark was in the habit of 
attending service in this (then newly built) church, and it 
was one of the petty insults which William and Mary 
offered to their sister-in-law (after her refusal to give up 
Lady Marlborough) to forbid Dr. Birch, the rector, to place 



72 WALKS IN LONDON. 

the text upon the cushion m her pew, an order the rector, 
an especial partisan of the Princess, refused to comply 
with. 

Among the illustrious persons who have been buried 
here are Charles Cotton, the friend of Izaak Walton, 1687 ; 
the two painters Vandevelde; Dr. Arbuthnot, the friend 
of Pope and Gay, the slouching satirist, of whom Swift 
said that he could "do everything but walk," 1734-5; 
Mark Akenside, the harsh doctor who wrote the " Plea- 
sures of Imagination," 1770; Michael Dahl, the portrait- 
painter; Robert Dodsley, footman, poet, and bookseller, 
1764; William, the eccentric Duke of Queensberry, known 
as " Old Q." ; the beautiful and brilliant Mary Granville, 
Mrs. Delany, 1788; James Gilray, the caricaturist, 181 5; 
and Sir John Malcolm, Governor of Bombay, 1833.* In 
the vestry are portraits of mosfof the rectors of St. James's, 
including Tenison, Wake, and Seeker, who were afterwards 
Archbishops of Canterbury. On the outside of tiie tower, 
towards Jermyn Street, a tablet commemorates the humble 
poet-friend of Charles II., who wrote "Pills to purge 
Melancholy." It is inscribed — "Tom D'Urfey, dyed 
February 26, 1723." 

" I remember King Charles leaning on Tom D'Urfey's shoulders 
more than once, and humming over a song with him. It is certain thai 
the monarch was not a little supported by 'Joy to great Caesar,' which 
gave the Whigs such a blow as they were not able to recover that 
whole reign. My friend afterwards attacked Popery with the same 
success, having exposed Bellarmine and Porto-Carrero more than once, 
in short satirical compositions which have been in everybody's mouth. 
.... Many an honest gentleman has got a reputation in his country, 
by pretending to have been in company with Tom D'Urfey." — Addison, 
Guardian, No. 67. 

• Removed to Kensal Green: his monument is on the outside of the church 



BURLINGTON HOUSE. 73 

On the other side of Piccadilly, nearly opposite the 
church, are the Albany Chambers^ which take their name 
from the second title of the Duke of York, to whom the 
principal house once belonged. 

" In the quiet avenue of the Albany, memories of the illustrious dead 
crowd upon you. Lord Byron wTote his ' Lara ' here, in Lord Althorpe's 
chambers ; George Canning lived at A. 5, and Lord Macaulay in E. i ; 
Tom Drmcombe in F. 3 ; Lord Valentia, the traveller, in H. 5 ; Monk 
Lewis in K. i." — Blanc hard Jerrold. 

On the right in returning is Burlington House, built by 
Banks and Barry, 1868 — 74. The inner part towards the 
courtyard is handsome ; that towards the street, and the 
sides of the building, are spoilt by the heavy meaningless 
vases by which they are overladen. In the construction of 
this commonplace edifice, one of the noblest pieces of 
architecture in London was wantonly destroyed — the 
portico, built in 1668, of which Sir William Chambers 
wrote as "one of the finest pieces of architecture in 
Europe," and which Horace Walpole said " seemed one of 
those edifices in fairy-tales that are raised by genii in a 
night-time." 

The old house (the second on the site) was built from 
the designs of Richard Boyle, third Earl of Burlington,* 
but the portico has been attributed to Colin Campbell. 
The walls of the interior were painted by Marco Ricci. 
Handel lived in the house for two years. Alas th.nt we 
can no longer say with Gay — 

*• Burlington's fair palace still remains ; 

Beauty within, without proportion reigns 1 

• Hogarth's print of "Taste" represents the Gate of Burlington House 
surmounted by his favourite Kent, with Lord Burlington on a ladder carrying up 
materials, and Pope whitewashing the gate and splashing the passers-by. 



74 WALKS IN LONDON. 

Beneath his eye declining art revives, 

The wall with animated pictures lives ; 

There Handel strikes the strings, the melting strain 

Transports the soul, and thrills through every vein." 

Burlington House vi^as bought by the nation in 1854. 
The central portion of the modern buildings is devoted to 
the Royal Academy, which was founded in 1768, with 
Reynolds as President. It consists of forty Academicians 
and twenty Associates. Their first exhibitions took place 
in Somerset House, but, after 1838, they were held in the 
eastern wing of the National Gallery. 

The Exhibition opens on May I, and closes the last week in July. 
Admission is. Catalogues is. 

The permanent possessions of the Royal Academy 
include — 

Leonardo da Vinci. Cartoon of the Holy Trinity in black chalk. 

Michel Angela. Relief of the Holy Trinity — in which St. John is 
giving a dove to the infant Saviour, who shrinks into his mother's 
arms. 

Marco d'Oggione. A copy of Leonardo da Vinci's Last Supper — 
from the Certosa of Pavia. 

The buildings to the right of the quadrangle on entering 
are occupied by the Chemical, Geological, and Royal 
Societies : those to the left by the Linnaean, Astronomical, 
and Antiquarian Societies. 

The Royal Society had its origin in weekly meetings of 
learned men, which were first held in 1645. The early 
meetings of the Society, under the Presidency of Sir Isaac 
Newton, were held in Crane Court in Fleet Street. After 
1780 the meetings were held in Somerset House till 1857, 
when the Society moved to Burlington House. It possesses 
a valuable collection of portraits, including — 



THE ROYAL SOCIETY. 75 

Meeting Rooms. 

Hogarth. Martin Folkes the Antiquary, who succeeded Sir Hans 
Sloane as President in 1741. 

Phillips. Sir Joseph Banks, President from 1777 to 1820, during 
which he contributed much to the advancement of science. He is 
represented in the chaii- adorned with the arms of the Society, which 
is still to be seen at the end of the room, and which was given by Sir 
1. Newton. 

** Sir Joseph Banks, w^ho was almost bent double, retained to the, 
last the look of a privy-councillor." — HazUtt. 

Jackson, Dr. WoUaston (1776 — 1828), who made platinum malle- 
able, and is celebrated as having analyzed a lady's tear, which he 
arrested upon her cheek. 

Kneller. Samuel Pepys, author of the well-known " Diary," Presi- 
dent from 1684 to 1686. The portrait was presented by Pepys. 

Kersehoom. TheHon. Robert Boyle (1627 — 169 1 ), equally illustrious 
as a religious and philosophical writer. Given by his executors. 

Kneller. Lord Chancellor Somers, elected President in 1702. 

Vanderhank. Sir Isaac Newton, President from 1703 to 1727. 

" Nature and Nature's laws lay hid in night ; 
God said, ' Let Newton be,' and all was light ! '* 

Lely. Viscount Brouncker (1620 — 84), illustrious as a mathe- 
matician. 

Reynolds. Sir J. Pringle, physician to George IH., elected Presi- 
dent in 1 7 14. 

Lawrence. Sir Humphry Davy, the first chemist of his age, elected 
President in 1820. 

Hudson. George, Earl of Macclesfield, who brought about the 
change from the Old to the New Style, and by whose coach the people 
used to run shouting, " Give us back our fortnight ;" " Who stole the 
eleven days } " 

Kneller. Sir Christopher Wren the architect, 1632 — 1723. 

Home. John Hunter (1728 — 1793), the great anatomist and 
surgeon. 

Home. J. Ramsden (1735 — 1800), the great philosophical instrume»t 
maker, who, however, worked so slowly that people used to say that if 
he had to make the trumpets for the Day of Judgment they would not 
be ready in time. 

Chamberlain. Dr. Chandler, the Nonconformist divine, 1693— 
1756. 

Gibson. John Flamsteed (1646 — 17 19), the first astronomer royal 



76 WALKS IN LONDON, 

In the Library up-stairs are preserved a model of Davy's 
Safety Lamp made by himself, and many relics of Sir Isaac 
Newton, the most important being the first complete reflect- 
ing Telescope, which had so much to do with the evolu- 
tion of astronomy from astrology, " invented by Sir Isaac 
Newton, and made with his own hands, 1671." The other 
relics include a sundial which he carved on the wall of 
Woolsthorpe Manor-house, near Grantham, where he was 
born; his telescope, made in 1688; his watch; a lock of 
his silver hair ; various articles carved from the apple-tree 
which has long played an imaginary part as suggesting his 
discoveries ; and an autograph written as " Warden of the 
Mint," in which office he was not above speculations m 
the South Sea Bubble ; and a MS. — apparently written by 
his amanuensis, with interpolations from his own hand — of 
the *' Principia," which occupies the same position to 
philosophy as the Bible does to religion. There is here a 
fine bust of Newton by Roubiliac, but a cast taken after 
death shows that the features are too small. A noble bust 
by Chantrey represents Sir J. Banks, the President whose 
despotic will was law to the Society for forty years, and 
who transacted the business of the Society at his break- 
fasts. Mrs. Somerville has the honour of being the only 
lady whose bust (by Chantrey) is placed there. The por- 
traits include — 

Paul Vansomer. Lord Chancellor Bacon, 1560 — 1626. 

Sir P. I^ely. Robert Boyle — a portrait bequealhed by Newton. 

W. Dohson. Thomas Hobbes (1588 — 1679), the free-thinking philo. 
sopher. 

y. Murray. Dr. Halley (1656 -1742), the mathematician and 
astronomer. 

jfervas. Sir Isaac Newton. 



SOCIETY OF ANTIQUARIES, 77 

The Society of Antiquaries had its origin in an antiquarian 
society founded by Archbishop Parker in 1572, whose 
members, including Camden, Cotton, Raleigh, and Stow, 
met in 1580 at the Heralds' College, though by the close of 
Elizabeth's reign we hear of the " Collegium Antiquariorum " 
as assembling at the house of Sir R. Cotton in Westminster. 
The suspicions of James I. compelled them for a time to 
suspend all public meetings, and in the beginning of the 
seventeenth century they met at the " Bear Tavern " in 
Butchers' Row. In 1707 we find them at the ''Young Devil 
Tavern" in Fleef Street; then, in 1709, hard by at the 
"Fountain;" and, in 1717, at the "Mitre." On Nov. 2, 
1750, George II., who called himself " Founder and Patron," 
granted a charter of incorporation to the Society, who, in 
1753, moved to the Society's house in Chancery Lane. 
In 1 781 apartments in Somerset House were bestowed 
upon the Society, which they occupied till 1874. The 
room in which the Society now holds its meetings contains 
a number of curious ancient portraits, chiefly royal : that of 
Margaret of York, sister of Edward IV., is by Hugo Vaiider 
Goes. Here also are copies by R. Smirke from the lost 
historical paintings in St. Stephen's Chapel at Westminster. 
A picture of the Martyrdom of St. Erasmus is interesting as 
an English work of the fifteenth century. On the Staircase 
is a diptych representing the old St. Paul's, with Paul's 
Cross, painted by John Gipkym in 1616. The handsome 
Library on the upper floor contains a fine bust of George IIL 
by Bacon, and the splendid portrait of Mary I., painted by 
Lucas de Heere m 1554. The queen is represented in a 
yellow dress with black jewels : the jewel which hangs from 
the neck still exists in the possession of the Abercorn family. 



78 WALKS IN LONDON. 

[At the back of Burlington House are the Palladian 
buildings of the IVezv London University ^ built from designs 
oi Fennefhorne, 1868 — 70. 

In Cork Street, facing the back of Burlington House, 
General Wade's house was built by R. Boyle, Earl of Bur- 
lington, a house which was sc uncomfortable as to make 
Lord Chesterfield say that if the owner could not be at his 
ease in it, he had better take a house over against it and 
look at it?[ 

The Burlington Arcade was built by Ware for Lord George 
Cavendish in 1815, and is "famous," as Leigh Hunt says, 
"for small shops and tall beadles." Just beyond is the 
little underground newsvendor's, whither Louis Napoleon 
Buonaparte " would stroll quietly from his house in King 
Street, St. James's, in the evening, with his faithful dog 
Ham for his companion, to read the latest news in the last 
editions of the papers." * Bond Street, Albemarle Street, 
Dover Street, and Grafton Street occupy the site of 
Clarendon Hou€e and its gardens, built by the Lord 
Chancellor Earl of Clarendon, who laid out the gardens 
at a cost of ;£^5o,ooo. He sold the property m 1657 to 
Christopher Monk, second Duke of Albemarle, who pulled 
down the house. 

Bond Street \i2A built in 1686 by Sir Thomas Bond of 
Peckham, Comptroller of the Household to Henrietta Maria, 
as Queen Mother, who was created a baronet by Charles IL, 
and bought part of the Clarendon estate from the Duke of 
Albemarle. The author of " Tristram Shandy," Laurence 
Sterne, died at "the Silk Bag Shop," No. 41, March 18, 
1768, without a friend near him. 

• Blanchard Jerrold's " Life of Napoleon III.," vol. iL 



DEVONSHIRE HOUSE, 79 

" No one but a hired nurse was in the room, when a footman, sent 
from a dinner-table where was gathered a gay and brilliant part/ — the 
Dukes of Roxburgh and Graf* on, the Earls of March and Ossory, David 
Garrick and David Hume — to enquire how Dr. Sterne did, was bid to 
go up stairs by the woman of the shop. He found Sterne just a dying. 
In ten minutes, ' Now it is come,' he said ; he put up his hand as if to 
stop a blow, and died in a minute." — Leslie and Taylor's Life of Sir 
jf. Reynolds. 

No. 134 is the Grosvenor Gallery, a Picture Gallery 
and Restaurant, opened May, 1877, by Sir Coutts Lindsay. 
It has a doorway by PalladiOy brought from the Church of 
St. Lucia at Venice, inserted in an inartistic front of mounte- 
bank architecture by W, T. Sams. No. 64, at the corner 
of Brook Street, is a capital modern copy of old Dutch 
architecture. 

In Albemarle Street, named from Christopher Monk, 
second Duke of Albemarle, is the Royal Institution, esta- 
blished in 1799, where the threads of science are unravelled 
by men. At the entrance of the street is the publishing 
house of John Murray, third in the dynasty of John 
Murrays, whose house was founded in Fleet Street in 1768, 
and whose fortunes were made by the Quarterly Review. 

Dover Street derives its name from Henry Jermyn, Lord 
Dover. John Evelyn lived on the eastern side of this 
street, and died there in his eighty-sixth year, Feb. 27, 
1705-6. 

Beyond the turn into Berkeley Street, a high brick wall 
hides the great court3'ard of Devo7ishire House. The site 
was formerly occupied by Berkeley House, built by Sir 
John Berkeley, created Lord Berkeley of Stratton (whence 
Stratton Street) in 1658. It was to this house that the 
Princess (afterwp.rds Queen) Anne retreated when she 
quarrelled wi.h William HI. in 1693 — 5. 



8o WALKS IN LONDON. 

" The Princess Anne, divested of every vestige of royal rank, lived 
at Berkeley House, where she and Lady Marlborough amused them- 
selves with superintending their aurseries, playing at cards, and talking 
treason against Queen Mary and * her Dutch Caliban,' as they called 
the hero of Nassau." — Strickland^ s Mary II. 

Berkeley House was burnt in 1733, and Devonshire 
House was built on its site by William Kent for the third 
Duke of Devonshire.* It is a perfectly unpretending build- 
ing, with a low pillared entrance-hall, but its winding marble 
staircase with wide shallow steps is admirably suited to the 
princely hospitalities of the Cavendishes, and its large 
gardens with their tall trees give the house an unusual air 
of seclusion. Of both house and garden the most interest- 
ing associations centre around the brilliant crowd which 
encircled the beautiful Georgiana Spencer, fifth Duchess 
of Devonshire, whose verses on William Tell produced the 
lines of Coleridge — 

* Oh Lady, nursed in pomp and pleasure, 
Where learnt you that heroic measure ? " 

Her traditional purchase of a butcher's vote with a kiss, 
when canvassing for Fox's election, produced the epigram — 

' Array'd in matchless beauty, Devon's fair 

In Fox's favour takes a zealous part : 
But oh ! where'er the pilferer comes, beware, 

She supplicates a vote, and steals a heart." t 

The reception-rooms are handsome, with beautiful ceilings. 
Few of the pictures are important. Ascending the principal 
staircase, we may notice — 

• Devonshire House is only shown on presentation of a special order from the 
family, 
t History ol the Westminster Election, by Lovers of Truth and Justice, 1784. 



DEVONSHIRE HOUSE, 8l 



State Drawing Room. 

Paul Veronese. The Adoration of the Magi — a very beautiful 
picture, full of religious feeling. 

Giacomo Bassano. (Over door) Moses and the Burning Bush. 

n Calabrese. Musicians. 

Michel Angela Caravaggio. Musicians. 

Cignani. Virgin and Child. 

Jordaens. Prince Frederick Henry of Orange and his wife. A 
capital picture. There is a picturesque feeling unusual with the master 
in the arch with the vine tendril climbing across, and the parrot pecking 
at it — both dark against a dark sky, the better to bring out the light on 
the lady's forehead. 

Saloon. 

Family Portraits, including the first Duke of Devonshire and the hrst 
Lord and Lady Burlington, by Sir Godjrey Kneller. 

Green Drawing Room. 

Salvator Rosa. Jacob's Dream— a poetical picture. The angels 
ascending and descending are poised upon the ladder by the power of 
their wings. 

Dining Room. 

Sir P. Lely. Portrait of a Sculptor. 

Dohson. (The first great English portrait-painter) Sir Thomas 
BroHTie, the author of " Religio Medici," with his wife and several of 
his children. She had ten, and lived very happily with her husband 
for forty-one years, though at the time of their marriage he had just 
published his opinion that " man is the whole world, but woman only 
the rib or crooked part of man." 

Frank Hals. Portrait of Himself. 

Vandyke. Margaret, Countess of Carlisle, and her little daughter. 
Very carefully painted and originally conceived. 

Vandyke. Eugenia Clara Isabella, daughter of Philip IV. of Spain, 
as widow of the Archduke Albert. 

Vandyke. A Lady in a yellow dress. 

Sir Joshua Reynolds. Lord Richard Cavendish. 

Vandyke. Lord Strafford. 

Blue Velvet Room. 
Murillo. The Infant Moses. 
Guercino. Christ on the Mount of Olives. 
Guido Reni. Perseus and Androme-^a. 

VOL. IT. G 



82 WALKS IN LONDON, 

Beyond Devonshire House, Piccadilly has only houses 
on one side, which look into the Green Park. After pass- 
ing Clarges Street, named from Sir Walter Clarges 
(nephew of Anne Clarges, the low-born wife of General 
Monk), we may notice No. 80 as the house whence Sir 
Francis Burdett was taken to the Tower, April 6, 1810; 
at the corner of Bolton Row (No. 82) Bath House, rebuilt 
in 182 1 for Lord Ashburton ; and No. 94, with a courtyard, 
now a Naval and Military Club, as Cambridge House, 
where Adolphus, Duke of Cambridge, youngest son of 
George III., died July 8, 1850. On the balcony of No. 138, 
on fine days in summer, used to sit the thin withered 
old figure of the Duke of Queensberry, " with one eye, 
looking on all the females that passed him, and not dis- 
pleased if they returned him whole winks for his single 
ones." * He was the last grandee in England who em- 
ployed running footmen, and he used to try their paces 
by watching and timing them from his balcony as they raif* 
up and down Piccadilly in his liveries. One day a new 
footman was running on trial, and acquitted himself splen- 
didly. "You will do very well for me," said the Duke. 
" And your grace's livery will do very well for me," replied 
the footman, and gave a last proof of his fleetness of foot 
by running away with it.f 

Half-Moon Street, so called from a tavern, leads into 
Curzon Street (named from George Augustus Curzon, third 
Viscount Howe), associated in the recollection of so many 
living persons with the charming parties of the sisters 
Mary and Agnes Berry, who died in 1852 equally 

• Leigh Hunt. 

t ^ee Notes and Quenes, and series, i. 9. 



PICCADILLY, 83 

honoured and beloved. They lived at No. 8, where 
Murrell, their servant, used to set up a lamp over their door, 
as a sign when they had " too many women " at their parties : 
a few habitue's of the male sex, however, knew that they 
could still come in, whether the lamp was lighted or not. 
" The day may be distant," says Lord Houghton, " before 
social tradition forgets the house in Curzon Street where 
dwelt the Berrys." * 

" Our English grandeur on the shelf 

Deposed its decent gloom, 
And every pride unloosed itself 

Within that modest room, 
"Where none were sad, and few were dull, 

And each one said his best, 
And beauty was most beautiful 

With vanity at rest." — Monckton Milnes. 

Chantrey lived in an attic of No. 24, Curzon Street, and 
modelled several of his busts there. 

All the streets north of Piccadilly now lead into the dis- 
trict of May f air ^ which takes its name from a fair which 
used to be held in Shepherd's Market and its surrounding 
streets. 

At the corner of Park Lane (once Tyburn Lane !) is Glou- 
cester House, where Mary, Duchess of Gloucester, died, April 
30, 1857. This was the house to which Lord Elgin brought 
the Elgin Marbles, and which was called by Byron the 

** general mart 
For all the mutilated blocks of art." 

In No. I, Hamilton Place (named from James Hamilton, 
ranger of Hyde Park under Charles II.) lived the great 

* Monographs. 



84 WALKS IN LONDON, 

Lord Eldon. Just beyond we may notice No. 139, Picca* 
dilly Terrace, as the house in which the separation between 
Lord and Lady Byron took place. 

Returning to Berkeley Street (named from John, Lord 
Berkeley of Stratton, Lord Deputy of Ireland in the time of 
Charles IL), we may remember that it was the London 
residence of Alexander Pope. On the left is Lansdowne 
Passage, a stone alley sunk in the gardens of Lansdowne 
House, leading to Bolton Row. The bar which crosses its 
entrance is a curious memorial of London highwaymen, 
having been put up in the last century to prevent their 
escape that way, after a mounted highwayman had ridden 
full gallop up the steps, having fled through Bolton Row, 
after robbing his victims in Piccadilly. This is " the dark 
uncanny-looking passage " described by Trollope in " Phi- 
neas Redux " with a persistency which almost impresses the 
fact as real, as the scene of Mr. Bonteen's murder — " It was 
on the steps leading up from the passage to the level of the 
ground above that the body was found." 

On the right is Hay Hill, where Sir Thomas Wyatt's head 
was exhibited on a long pole after the rebellion of 1554, his 
quarters being set up in various other parts of the City. It 
was here that George IV. and the Duke of York were 
stopped as young men, in a hackney coach, by a robber 
who held a pistol at their heads, while he demanded their 
money, but had to go away disappointed, for they could 
only muster half-a-crown between them. 

On the left a heavy screen of foliage gives almost the 
seclusion of the country to Lansdoivne House, which stands 
in a large garden approached by gates decorated with the 
bee-hives which are the family crest. The house was built 



LANSDOWNE HOUSE, 85 

by Robert Adam for the prime-minister Lord Bute, and, 
wnile still unfinished, was sold to William Petty, Earl of 
Shelburne, who became prime-minister on the death of 
Lord Rockingham, and upon whom the title of Marquis 
of Lansdowne was conferred by Pitt, from Lansdowne Hill, 
near Bath, part of the property of his wife, Sophia, daughter 
of John, Earl Granville. The ancient statues in Lansdowne 
House were collected at Rome by Gavin Hamilton in the 
last century ; the collection of pictures was formed by the 
third Marquis of Lansdowne. 

Lansdowne House is not shown except by special order. 

In the Entrance Hall we may notice — 

Over the chimney-piece, Esculapius — a noble relief. 

A Bust of Jupiter. 

A Marble Seat, dedicated to Apollo, with the sacred serpent. 

In the Ball Room — 

Diomed holdinjj the palladium in one hand — much restored. 

Mercury — a bust. 

Juno— a seated figure, much restored, but with admirable drapery. 

Jason fastening his sandal. 

* Mercury— a glorious and entirely beautiful statue, found at the Torre 
Columbaro on the Via Appia. Portions of the arms and of the right 
leg, and the left foot, are restorations. 

Marcus Aurelius, as Mars, wearing only the chlamys. 

Colossal bust of Minerva. 

In the Dming Room is — 
A Sleeping Female Figure, the beautiful last work of Canwa, 

Of the Pictures we may especially notice — 

Ante-Room, 

Gonzales. An Arcliitect and his Wife — full of chararter. 

Eckhardt (in a beautiful frame by Gibbons). Sir Robert Walpole and 



86 WALKS IN LONDON, 

his first wife, Catherine Shorter. Their house of Houghton, represented 
in the background, and the dogs, are by jfohn Wootton. From the 
Strawberry Hill Collection. 

Raeburn. Portrait of Francis Horner. 

Sir T. Lawrence. Portrait of the third Marquis of Lansdowne. 

Sitting Room, 

Rembrandt. His own Portrait. 

Reynolds. Mary Teresa, Countess of Ilchester (mother of the third 
Marchioness of Lansdowne), and her two eldest daughters. 
TiJttoretto. Portrait of Andrew Dona. 
Ostade. Skating on a canal in Holland— full of truth and beauty. 

Library, 

Reynolds. Kitty Fisher, with a bird. 

Reynolds. Portrait of Garrick. 

Jervas. Portrait of Pope. 

Jackson. Portrait of Flaxman. 

Reynolds. Portrait of Sterne. 

. " When Sterne sat to Reynolds, he had not written the stories of Le 
Fevre, The Monk, or The Captive, but was known only as * a fellow of 
infinite jest, of most excellent fancy.' In this matchless portrait, with 
all its expression of intellect and humour, there is a sly look for which 
we are prepared by the insidious mixture of so many abominations with 
the finest wit in Tristram Shandy and the Sentimental Journey, nor is 
the position of the figure less characteristic than the expression of the 
face. It is easy, but it has not the easiness of health. Sterne props 

himself up While he was sitting to Reynolds, his wig had 

contrived to get itself a little on one side ; and the painter, with that 
readiness in taking advantage of accident to which we owe so many 
of the delightful novelties in his works, painted it so, ... . and it is 
surprising what a Shandean air this venial impropriety of the wig gives 
to its owner." — Leslie and Taylor's Life of Sir J. Reynolds. 

Gainsborough. Portrait of Dr. Franklin. (A replica of this picture 
has been exhibited as a portrait of Surgeon-General Middleton, who 
died in 1785 ; but from the resemblance of this portrait to the m.iniature 
given by Franklin to his friend Jonathan Shipley, Bishop of St. Asaph, 
there cau be no doubt whom it represents.) 

Reynolds. Portrait of Horace Walpole. 

Giorgione. Portrait of Sansovino, the Venetian arcliitect. 

Vandyke. Henrietta Maria. 



BERKELEY SQUARE. 87 

Drawing Room. 

Reynolds. Portrait of Lady Anstruther. 

Guercino. The Prodigal Son — from the Palazzo Borghese. 

Rembrandt. A Lady in a ruff: dated 1642. 

Reynolds. The Sleeping Girl (a replica). 

* Sebastian del Piombo. A noble Portrait of Count Federigo da 
Bizzola— purchased from the Ghizzi family at Naples. The gem of 
the collection. 

Domenichino. St. Cecilia — once in the Borghese Gallery, after- 
wards in the collection of the Duke of Lucca. 

" St. Cecilia here combines the two characters of Christian martyr 
and patroness of music. Her tunic is of a deep red with white sleeves, 
and on her head she wears a kind of white turban, which, in the artless 
disposition of its folds, recalls the linen headdress in which her body 
was found, and no doubt was intended to imitate it. She holds the 
viol gracefully, and you almost hear the tender tones she draws from 
it ; she looks up to heaven ; her expression is not ecstatic, as of one 
listening to the angels, but devout, tender, melancholy — as one who 
anticipated her fate, and was resigned to it ; she is listening to her 
own song, and her song is, * Thy will be done.'" — Jameson's Sacred 
and Legendary Art. 

Reynolds. The Girl with a muff (a replica). 

Velazquez. Portraits of Himself, the Duke of Olivares, and an 
Infant of Spain in its cradle, 

Lodovico Carracci. The Agony in the Garden — from the Giustiniani 
Collection. 

Murillo. The Conception. 

Reynolds. Portrait of Elizabeth Drax, fourth Countess of Berkeley. 

Berkeley Square., built 1698, and named from Berkeley 
House in Piccadilly (see Devonshire House), has the best 
trees of any square in London. They are all planes, the 
only trees which thoroughly enjoy a smoky atmosphere. 
It was in No. 11 that Horace Walpole died in 1797. No. 44 
has a noble staircase erected by Kent for Lady Isabella 
Finch, In No. 45 the great Lord Clive, founder of the 
British Empire in India, committed suicide, November 22, 
1774. No. 50 has obtained a great notoriety in late years 



88 WALKS IN LONDON. 

as the "Haunted House in Berkeley Square," about which 
there have been such strange stories and surmises. Many 
of the houses in this and in Grosvenor Square retain, in the 
fine old ironwork in front of their doors, the extinguishers 
employed to put out the flambeaux which the footmen used 
to carry lighted at the back of the carriages during a night 
drive through the streets. Ben Jonson speaks of those 
thieves of the night who — 

" Their prudent insults to the poor confine 
Afar they mark the flambeau's bright approach, 
And shun the shining train, and golden coach ; '* 

and Gay says — 

" Yet who the footman's arrogance can quell, 
Whose flambeau gilds the sashes of Pali-Mall, 
When in long rank a train of torches flame, 
To light the midnight visits of the dame." 

One of the best examples is that at No. 45, where the 
doorplate of the Earl of Powis is, with the exception of that 
of Lady Willoughby de Broke in Hill Street, the only 
remaining example of the old aristocratic doorplates, which 
were once universal. 

Near the entrance of Charles Street, Berkeley Square, we 
may notice the tavern sign of the Running Footman — " I 
am the only Running Footman " — only too popular with the 
profession, which shows the dress worn by the running 
retainers of the last century, who have left nothing but their 
name to the stately flunkeys of the present. 

Just behind Berkeley Square, at the north-east corner, 
in Davies Street, is Bourdon House, preserved through all 
the vicissitudes of this part of London as having been the 



GROSVENOR SQUARE, 89 

little manor-house in the country which was the home of 
Miss Mary Davies, whose marriage with Sir Thomas Grosve. 
nor in 1676 resulted in the enormous wealth of his family 
through the value to which her paternal acres rose. Her 
farm is commemorated in the rural names of many 
neighbouring streets — Farm Street, Hill Street, Hay Hill, 
Hay Mews. 




In Berkeley Square. 



In front of this house, Mount Street (named from Oliver's 
Mount, part of the fortifications raised round London by 
the Parliament in 1643) and Charles Street (right) lead into 
Grosvenor Square^ which has for a century and a half main- 
tained the position of the most fashionable place of 
residence in London. No. 39 was the house in which "the 
Cato Street conspirators " under Arthur Thistlewood 



90 WALKS IN LONDON. 

arranged (February 23, 1820) to murder the Ministers of the 
Crown while they were dining with Lord Harrowby, Presi- 
dent of the Council. " It will be a rare haul to murder 
them all together," Thistlewood exclaimed at their final 
meeting, and bags were actually produced in which the 
heads of Lord Sidmouth and Lord Castlereagh were to be 
brought away, after which the cavalry barracks were to be 
fired, and the Bank of England and the Tower taken by 
the people, who, it was hoped, would rise on the news. 
The ministers were warned, and the conspirators seized in 
a loft in Cato Street,* Marylebone Road, only a few hours 
before their design was to have been carried out. Thistle- 
wood and his four principal accomplices were tried for high 
treason, and, after a most ingenious defence in a speech of 
five hours by John Adolphus, were condemned and hanged 
at the Old Bailey. 

" Before their execution it occurred to Adolphus to ask each of his 
clients for an autograph. One of them, J. T. Brent, wrote — 

' Let S h and his base colleagues 

Cajole and plot their dark intrigues, 
Still each Britton's last words shall be 
Oh give me Death or Liberty.' 

" Much amusement was excited by the caution as to the name of 
Sidmouth in one whose sentence of death would at least save him an 
action for libel." — See Henderson's Recollections of John Adolphus. 

The old ironwork and flambeau extinguishers before many 
of the doors in Grosvenor Square deserve notice. In the 
last century the nobility were proud of their flambeaux, and 
it is remarkable that the aristocratic Square refused to 

' The name was foolishly changed to Homer Street to obliterate the recollec- 
tion of the conspiracy. * 



GROSVENOR HOUSE. 91 

adopt the use of gas till compelled to do so by force of 
public opinion in 1842, Pall Mall having been lighted 
with gas from 1807. 

Grosvenor Square is crossed by the two great arteries of 
Grosvenor Street and Brook Street. William, Duke of 
Cumberland, died (October 31, 1765) in Upper Grosvenor 
Street. No. 33, with a courtyard, separated from the street 
by a stone colonnade with han(;some metal gates (by Cundy, 
1842) is Grosve?ior House (Duke of Westminster), once, as 
Gloucester House, inhabited by the Duke of Gloucester, 
brother of George III. Its noble collection of pictures can 
only be seen by a personal order of admission from the 
Duke of Westminster. The pictures, which are all hung in 
the delightful rooms constantly occupied by the family, are 
most generously shown between the hours of eleven and 
one to all who have provided themselves with tickets by 
application. We may notice — 

Dining Room. 

2. Benjamin West. The Death of General Wolfe, while heading the 
attack on Quebec, Sept. 13, 1759. The picture is of great interest, as 
that in which West (whom Reynolds had vainly endeavoured to dis- 
suade from so gi'eat a risk) gained the first victory over the ludicrous 
" classic taste " which had hitherto crushed all historic art under the 
costume of the Greeks and Romans. 

7,19. Claude Lorraine. " Morning " and " Evening. " 
8, 17. Rembrandt. Noble Portraits of Nicholas Berghem, the land- 
scape-painter and his wife, who was daughter of the painter Jan Wels, 
1647. 

12, 18. Claude. Two Landscapes, called, from the Roman buildings 
introduced, " The Rise and Decline of the Roman Empire." 

13. Claude. The Worship of the Golden Calf. 

15. Rubens. A Flemish Landscape in Harvest-time. 

16, Rembrandt. His own Portrait, at twenty, in a soldier's dress. 
23. Rembrandt. Portrait of a Man with a hawk, 1643. 



92 WALKS IN LONDON. 

25. Hogarth. "The Distressed Poet." The landlady is furiously 
exhibiting her biU to the bewildered poet and his simple-minded 
wife. 

27. Hogarth. A Boy endeavouring to rescue his kite from a raven, 
which is tearing it, while entangled in a bush. 

26. Claude. The Sermon on the Mount. 

28. Claude. One of his most beautiful Landscapes. 
31. Rembrandt. A Lady with a fan — a noble portrait. 

Saloon. 

39. Cuyp. A River Scene near Dort — in a haze of golden light. 

40. Rembrandt. "The Salutation." Elizabeth is receiving the 
Vir in, whose veil is being removed by a negress. The aged Zacharias 
is being assisted down the steps of the house by a boy. This picture, 
which formerly belonged to the King of Sardinia, was brought to 
England in 18 1 2. It is signed, and dated 1640. 

42. Paul Potter. A Scene of PoDard WiUows and Cattle, painted at 
Dort for M. Van Singelandt. 

48. Guido Rem. The Madonna watching the sleeping Child — a sub- 
ject frequently repeated by the master. 

50. Andrea del Sarto. Portrait of the Contessina Mattel. 

53. Murillo. St. John and the Lamb — constantly repeated by the 
master. 

69. Giulio Romano. St. Luke painting the Virgin. 

72. Murillo. The Infant Christ asleep — a most lovely picture. 

74. A. Van der Werff. The Madonna laying the sleeping Child 
upon the ground — a singular picture, with wonderful power of chiaro- 
oscuro. 

75. Garofalo (?). A " Riposo." 

Small Drawing Room, 

* Gainsborough. " The Blue Boy " (Master Buttall)— the noblest 
portrait ever painted by the master, who chose the colour of the dress 
to disprove the assertion of Reynolds that a predominance of blue in a 
picture was incompatible with high art. 

83. Teniers. The Painter and his wife (Anne Breughel) discoursing 
with their old gardener at the door of his cottage, close to the artist's 
chateau, which is seen in the background. Painted in 1649. 

85. Gaitisborough. A stormy sea, with a woman selling fish upon 
the shore — unusual for the master. 

* Sir y. Reynolds. The glorious Portrait of Mrs. Siddons as the 
Tiagic Muse, painted in 1785. The want of colour in the face is owing 



GROSVENOR HOUSE. 93 

to the great actress's own request at her last sitting that Sir Joshua 
would " not heighten that tone of complexion so accordant with the 
chilly and concentrated musings of pale melancholy." Remorse and 
Pity appear like ghosts in the background. Reynolds inscribed his 
name on the border of the drapery, telling Mrs. Siddons that he could 
not resist the opportunity of going down to posterity on the hem of 
her garment. 

92. Vandyke. The Virgin and Child with St. Catherine. A very 
beautiful work of the master after his return from Italy — from the 
Church of the Recollets at Antwerp. 

Large Drawing Room. 

95. Rembrandt. A Landscape, with figures by Teniers. 

98. Guido Reni. "La Fortuna" — a repetition of the picture at 
Rome. 

100. Raffaelle [?). Holy Family — ^frora the Agar Collection. 

lor. Velazquez. The Infante Don Balthazar of Spain on horseback, 
attended by Don Gaspar de Guzman, the Conde de Olivares, and 
others. The king and queen are seen on the balcony of the riding 
school. 

102. Titian. Jupiter and Antiope — the landscape is said to be 
C adore. 

105. Rubens. The Painter and his first wife, Elizabeth Brand, as 
Pausias and Glycera — the inventor of garlands. The flowers are by 
jf. Breughel. 

100. Andrea Sacchi. St. Bruno. 

1 10. Giovanni Bellini [J). Madonna and Child, with four saints. 

Rubens Roojn, 

113. The IsraeHtes gathering Manna. 

r 14. The Meeting of Abraham and Melchizedek. 

115. The Four EvangeHsts. 

Three of the nine pictures painted in 1629 for PhUip IV., who pre- 
sented them to the Due of Olivarez for a Carmelite convent which he 
had founded at Loeches, near Madrid. These belong to the seven 
pictures carried off by the French in 1808 : two stiU remain at Loeches. 

" As a striking instance of a mistaken style of treatment, we may 
turn to the famous group of the Four Evangelists by Rubens, grand, 
colossal, staniing or rather moving figures, each with his emblem, if 
emblems the) can be called, which are almost as full of reality as nature 
itself : the ox so like Ufe, that we expect him to bellow at us ; the mag- 



94 IVALKS IN LONDON. 

nificent lion flourishing his tail, and looking at St. Mark as if about to roar 
at him ! and herein lies the mistake of the great painter, that, for the 
religious and mysterious emblem, he has substituted the creatures them- 
selves ; this being one of the instances, not unfrequent in art, in which 
the literal truth becomes a manifest falsehood." — Jameson's Sacred 
Art. 

Murillo. Laban coming to search the tent of Jacob for his stolen 
gods. 

Ante Drazvmg Room. 

117. Gainsborough. " The Cottage Door." 

1 19. Fra Bartolommeo. Holy Family. 

121. Sir J. Reynolds. Portrait of Mrs. Hartley the actress. 

125. Domenichino. Meeting of David and Abigail. 

130. Albert D'urer. A Hare. 

Brook Street is so called from the Tye Bourne whose 
course it marks. No. 57, four doors from Bond Street, 
was the house of George Frederick Handel, the famous 
composer, wbo used to give rehearsals of his oratorios there. 

North and south through Grosvenor Square runs Audley 
Street, so called from Hugh Audley, ob. 1662. No. 72, 
South Audley Street was the house of Alderman Wood, where 
Queen Caroline resided on her return from Italy in 1820, 
and from the balcony of which she used to show herself to 
the people. Spencer Perceval was born in the recess of the 
eastern side of the street, called Audhy Square, in 1762. At 
the bottom of South Audley Street, in May/air (so named in 
1 721, from a fair which began on May Day), gates and a court- 
yard lead to Chesterfield House (Charles Magniac, Esq.), built 
by Ware in 1749 for Philip, fourth Earl of Chesterfield, on 
land belonging to Curzon, Lord Howe (whence Chesterfield 
Street, Stanhope Stieet, and Curzon Street). It has a noble 
marble staircase with a bronze balustrade, which, as well as 
the portico, was brought from Canons, the seat of the Duke 



CHESTERFIELD HOUSE. 



95 



of Chandos at Edgeware. The curious Library still remains 
where Lord Chesterfield wrote his celebrated Letters, of 
which Dr. Johnson said, "Take out their immorahty, and 
they should be put into the hands of every gentleman." 
The busts and pictures which once made the room so 




Staircase of Chesterfield House. 



interesting have been removed, but under the cornice still 

run the lines from Horace — 

" Nunc . veterum . libris . nunc . somno . et . inertibus . horis 
Ducere . solicitse . jucunda . oblivia . vitae." 

*' We shall never recall that princely room without fancying Chester- 
field receiving in it a visit of his only child's mother— while probably 
some new favourite was sheltered in the dim, mysterious little boudoii* 
within."— Quarterly Review, No. 152. 

Lord Chesterfield was one of the first English patrons 
of French cookery : his cook was La Chapelle, a descend- 



96 TVALKS IN LONDON, 

ant ot the famous cook of Louis XIV. Chesterfield died 
in the house in 1773, and in accordance with his Will 
was interred in the nearest burial-ground (that of Grosvenor 
Chapel), but was afterwards removed to Shelford in Notting- 
hamshire. 

" Lord Chesterfield's entrance into the world was announced by his 
bon mots ; and his closing lips dropped repartees, that sparkled with 
his juvenile fire." — Horace Walpole. 

The Garden of Chesterfield House, mentioned by Beck- 
ford as " the finest private garden in London," has been 
lamentably curtailed of late years. 

In the vaults of Grosvenor Chapel is still buried 
Ambrose Philips (1762), described by Lord Macaulay as 
*' a good Whig, and a middling poet," and ridiculed by 
Pope as 

" The bard whom pilfered pastorals renown ; 
Who turns a Persian tale for hall-a-crown ; 
Just writes to make his barrenness appear, 
And strains from hard-bound brains eight lines a year. 

Here also rests Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (1762), who 
introduced the Turkish remedy of inoculation for the small- 
pox (practising it first upon her own children), and who was 
the authoress of the charming " Letters " which have been so 
often compared with those of Madame de S^vigne. A 
tablet commemorates " John Wilkes, a Friend of Liberty " 
(1797). This chapel is one of the places where public 
thanksgivings were returned (1781) for the acquittal of 
Lord George Gordon. 

North Audley Street and Orchard Street lead in a direct 
line to Portman Square^ so called from having been built 
on the property of William Henry Portman of Orchard 



PORTMAN SQUARE. 97 

Portman in Somersetshire (died 1796). Dorset Square, 
Orchard Street, Blandford Square, and Bryanston Square, 
on this property, take their names from country houses of the 
Portman family. No. 34 (Sir Edward Blackett, Bart.), 
prepared for the marriage of William Henry, Duke of 
Gloucester, with Lady Waldegrave in 1766, has a beautiful 
drawing-room decorated by the brothers Adam, and hung 
with exquisite tapestry. The detached house at the north- 
west angle is Montagu House, which became celebrated 
from the parties of Mrs. Elizabeth Montagu, the " Queen of 
the Blues," who here founded the Bas Bleu Society, whence 
the expression Blue Stocking. Her rooms, decorated with 
feather hangings to which all her friends contributed, are 
celebrated by Cowper. 

" The birds put off their every hue, 
To dress a room for Montagu. 
« « ij» « • • 

This plumage neither dashing shower, 

Nor blasts that shake the dripping bower, 

Shall drench again or discompose, 

But screened from every storm that blows, 

It boasts a splendour ever new, 

Safe with protecting Montagu." 

"Mrs. Montagu was qualified to preside in her circle, whatever 
subject was started ; but her manner was more dictatorial and senten- 
tious than conciliatory or diffident. There was nothing feminine about 
her ; and though her opinions were generally just, yet the organ which 
conveyed them was not soft or harmonious." — Sir N, Wraxall. * 

Johnson used to laugh at her, but said, " I never did her 
serious harm ; nor would I, — though I could give her a bite ; 
but she must provoke me much first." 

In the garden which surrounds the house Mrs. Montagu 
used to collect the chimney-sweeps of London every May 

VOL. II. H 



98 WALKS IN LONDON. 

Day and give them a treat, saying that they should have at 
least one happy day in the year. Her doing so originated 
in her discovering, in the disguise of a chimney-sweep, 
Edward Wortley Montagu (Lady Mary's son), who had run 
away from Westminster School. Mrs. Montagu died in 
1800, aged eighty; she is commemorated in Montagu 
Square and Street. 

Baker Street, which leads north from Portman Square, 
contains Madame Tussaud' s famous Exhibition of Waxivork 
Figures. Many of these, especially those relating to the 
French Revolution, were modelled from life, or death, by 
Madame Tussaud, who was herself imprisoned and in 
danger of the guillotine, with Madame Beauharnais and her 
child Hortense as her associates. 

Seymour Street Sind Wigmore Street* lead west to Cavendish 
Square. On the left is Manchester Square, containing Hert- 
ford House, the large brick mansion and Picture Gallery of 
Sir Richard Wallace, who inherited it from Lord Hertford. 
The pictures, which are not shown to the public, include 
several good works of Murillo, some fine specimens of the 
Dutch School, and the " Nelly O'Brien," " Mrs. Braddyl," 
" Mrs. Hoare," and other works of Sir Joshua Reynolds. 
The residence here of the second Marchioness of Hertford 
will recall Moore's lines — 

*• Oh, who will repair unto Manchester Square, 
And see if the lovely Marchesa be there, 
And bid her to come, with her hair darkly flowing, 
All gentle and juvenile, crispy and gay. 
In the manner of Ackermann's dresses for May ? ** 

Cavendish Square, laid out in 17 17, takes its name 

• Wigmore Street and Wimpole Street derive their names £i om countty-seatS 
of the Earls of Oxford. 



CAVENDISH SQUARE. 99 

(with the neighbouring Henrietta Street and Holies Street) 
from Lady Henrietta Cavendish Holies, who married, in 
17 13, Edward Harley, second Earl of Oxford. In the centre 
stood till lately a statue of William Duke of Cumberland 
(172 1 — 65), erected in 1770 by his friend General Strode. 
On the south side is a statue of Lord George Bentinck, 1848. 
The two houses at the north-east and north-west angles 
were intended as the extremities of the wings of the huge 
mansion of the great Duke of Chandos, by which he 
intended to occupy the whole north side of the square, 
but the project was cut short by his dying of a broken 
heart in consequence of the death of his infant heir, 
while he was being christened with the utmost magni- 
ficence. On the west is Har court House, built 1722 for 
Lord Bingley, and bought after his death by the Earl of 
Harcourt, who sold it to the Duke of Portland.* It has a 
courtyard and porte-cochere, like those in the Faubourg 
St. Germain. At No. 24 lived and painted George Romney, 
always called by Sir Joshua Reynolds, whom he had 
the honour of rivalling, " the man of Cavendish Square." 
Princess Amelia, daughter of George II., lived in the large 
house at the corner of Harley Street. In No. 24, Holies 
Street Lord Byron was born in 1788. There is little more 
worth noticing in the frightful district to the north of Oxford 
Street, which, with the exception of the two squares we have 
been describing, generally marks the limits of fashionable 
society. We may take Harley Street as a fair specimen of 

• The neig-hbouring Welbeck Street and Bolsover Street are named from 
country-house? of the Portland familj' ; but the great mass of streets in this 
neighbour] oo 1— Bentinck Street, Holies Street, Vere Street, Margaret Street, 
Cavendisi' St eet, Harley Street, Foley Place, Weymouth Street — commemorate 
the junction oF the great Hloomsbury and Marylebone estates by the marriage of 
William Bentinck, Duke of Portland, with \Iargaret Cavendish Harley in 1734. 



lOO WALKS IN LONDON, 

this dreary neighbourhood, with the grim rows of expression- 
less uniform houses, between which and *' unexceptionable 
society" Dickens draws such a vivid parallel in ''Little 
Dorrit." Taine shows it us from a Frenchman's point ot 
view. 

"From Regent's Park to Piccadilly a funereal vista of broad in- 
terminable streets. The footway is macadamised and black. The 
monotonous rows of buildings are o. blackened brick . the window- 
panes flash in black shadows. Each house is divided from the street 
by its railings and area. Scarcely a shop, certainly not one pretty one : 
no plate-glass fronts, no prints. How sad we should find it ! Nothing 
to catch or amuse the eye. Lounging is out of the question. One 
must work at home, or hurry by under an umbrella to one's office or 
club." — Notes sur V Angleterre. 

Though Oxford Street wsl?, the high-road to the University, 
it derives its name from Edward Harley, Earl of Oxford, 
owner of the manor of Tyburn. It was formerly called the 
Tyburn Road, and in 1729 was only enclosed by house's 
on its northern side. Besides those already mentioned, we 
need only notice, of its side streets on this side Regent 
Street, Stratford Place, where the Lord Mayor's Banqueting 
House stood, which was pulled down in 1737. Thither the 
Lord Mayor occasionally came " to view the conduits, and 
afore dinner they hunted the Hare, and killed her, and 
thence to dinner at the head of the conduit, and after 
dinner they went to hunting the Fox." * The end house 
in Stratford Place, which belonged to Cosway, the minia- 
ture painter, has a beautiful ceiling by Angelica Kauffmann. 

Oxford Street leads to the north-eastern corner of Hyde 
Park, which is entered at Cumberland Gate by the Marble 
Arch — one of our national follies — a despicable caricature 

♦ Strype. 



TYBURN. 101 

of the Arch of Constantine, originally erected by Nash at a 
cost of ;^75,ooo, as an approach to Buckingham Palace, 
and removed hither (when the palace was enlarged in 1851) 
at a cost of ;£^4,34o. 

At this corner of Hyde Park, where the angle of Con- 
naught Place now stands, was the famous " Tyburn Tree," 
sometimes called the "Three-Legged Mare," being a tri- 
angle on three legs, where the public executions took place 
till they were transferred to Newgate in 1783. The manor 
of Tyburn took its name from the Tye Bourne or brook, 
which rose under Primrose Hill, and the place was originally 
chosen for executions because, though on the high-road to 
Oxford, it was remote from London. The condemned were 
brought hither in a cart from Newgate — 

" thief and parson in a Tyburn cart," • 

the prisoner usually carrying the immense nosegay which, 
by old custom, was presented to him on the steps of St. 
Sepulchre's Church, and having been refreshed with a bowl 
of ale at St. Giles's. The cart was driven underneath the 
gallows, and, after the noose was adjusted, was driven 
quickly away by Jack Ketch the hangman, so that the 
prisoner was left suspended.! Death by this method was 
much slower and more uncertain than it has been since the 
drop was invented, and there have been several cases in 
which animation has been restored after the prisoner was 
cut down. Around the place of execution were raised 
galleries which were let to spectators ; they were destroyed 
by the disappointed mob who had engaged them when Dr. 

• Prologue by Dryden, 1684 

♦ The scene is depicted in Hogarth's "Idle Apprentice executed at Tybum." 



102 WALKS IN LONDON. 

Henesey was reprieved in 1758. One Mammy Douglas, 
who kept the key of the boxes, bore the name of the 
"Tyburn Pewopener."* The bodies of Cromwell, Ireton, 
and Bradshaw were buried under the Tyburn tree after 
hanging there for a day. Some bones discovered in 1840, 
on removing the pavement close to Arklow House, at tho 
south-west angle of the Edgeware Road, are supposed to 
have been theirs. On the house at the corner of Upper 
Bryanston Street and the Edgeware Road the iron balconies 
remained till 1785, whence the sheriffs used to watch the 
executions.! Amongst the reminiscences of executions at 
Tyburn are those connected with — 

1388. Judge Tressilian and Sir N. Brembre, for treason. 
1499. Perkin "Warbeck (Richard, Duke of York ?), nominally for 
attempting to escape from the Tower. 

1534. The Maid of Kent and her confederates, for prophesying 
Divine vengeance on Henry VIII. for his treatment of Catherine of 
Arragon. 

1535. Houghton, the last Prior of the Charterhouse, and several of 
his monks, for having spoken against the spoliation of Church lands by 
Henry VIII. 

1595. Robert Southwell, the Jesuit poet and author of "Saint 
Peter's Complaynt," " Mary Magdalen's Funeral Teares," &c., cruelly 
martyred for his faith under Elizabeth — " Mother of the Church " — 
after having been imprisoned for three years in the Tower and ten times 
put to the torture. 

16 1 5 (Nov. 14). The beautiful Mrs. Anne Turner, for her part in the 
murder of Sir Thomas Overbury, hanged in a yellow cobweb lawn ruff, 
with a black veil over her face. 

1623. John Felton, murderer of Villiers, Duke of Buckingham. His 
body was afterwards hung in chains at Portsmouth. 

1 66 1. On the 30th of January, the first anniversary of the execution 
of Charles I. after the Restoration, the bodies of Cromwell, Bradshaw, 
and Ireton, having been exhumed on the day before from Henry VII. 's 
Chapel at Westminster, and taken to the Red Lion in Holborn, were 

• Timbs, "Curiosities of London." 

♦ Footnote to the engraving of Tyburn Gallows, by William Capon, 1783- 



TYBURN, 103 

dragged hither on sledges and hanged till sunset. Then, being cut 
down, they were beheaded, their heads set on poles over Westminster 
HaD, and their bodies buried beneath the gallows. 

1661, Jan. 30. "This day (O the stupendous and inscrutable judge- 
ments of God ! ) were the carcasses of those arch rebells Cromwell, 
Bradshaw the judge who condemn'd his Majestic, and Ireton, son-in- 
law to ye Usurper, dragg'd out of their superb tombs in Westminster 
among the kings, to Tyburne, and hang'd on the gallows from 9 in ye 
morning till 6 at night, and then buried under that fatal and igno- 
minious monument in a deepe pitt ; thousands of people who had scene 
them in all their pride being spectators. Looke back at Nov. 22, 1658 
(Oliver's funeral), and be astonish'd ! and feare God and honor ye Kinge; 
but meddle not with them who are given to change." — Evelyn' s Diary, 

j66i (Oct. 19). Hacker and Axtell, the regicides. 

1662 (April 19). Okey, Barkstead, and Corbett, regicides. 

1676 (March 16). Thomas Sadler, for stealing the purse and mace of 
the Lord Chancellor from his house in Great Queen Street. 

168 1. Oliver Plunkett, Archbishop of Armagh, on a ridiculous accu- 
sation of plotting to bring over a French army against the Irish 
Protestants. 

1684 (June 20). Sir Thomas Armstrong, for the Rye House Plot. 
His head was set over Temple Bar. 

1705 (Dec. 12). John Smith, who, a reprieve arriving when he had 
hung for a quarter of an hour, was cut down, when he came to life, "to 
the great admiration of the spectators." 

1724 (Nov. 16). The notorious Jack Sheppard — in the presence of 
200,000 spectators. 

1725 (May 24). Jonathan Wild, who, at his execution, "picked the 
parson's pocket of his corkscrew, which he carried out of the world in 
his hand." 

1726. Katherine Hayes, for the murder of her husband — burnt aHve 
by the fury of the people. 

1753 (June 7). Dr. Archibald Cameron, for his part at Preston-Pans. 

1760 (May 5). Earl Ferrers, for the murder of his steward. A drop 
was first used on this occasion. By his own wish the condemned wore 
his wedding dress, and came from Newgate in his landau with six 
horses. He was hanged with a silken rope, for which the executioners 
afterwards fought. 

1 761 (Sept. 16). Mrs. Brownrigg, for whipping her female appren- 
tice to death in Fetter Lane. 

1772. The two Perreaus, for forgery. 

1774 (Nov. 30). John Rann, alias " Sixteen- Stringed Jack," a noted 
highw.T,}Tnan, for robbing the Princess Amelia's chaplain in Gunners- 



I04 WALKS IN LONDON. 

bury Lane. He suffered in a pea-green coat, with an immense nose- 
gay in his hand. 

1777 (June 27). The Rev. Dr. Dodd, for a forgery on the Earl of 
Chesterfield for_;^4,200. 

1779 (April 19). The Rev. J. Hackman, for the murder of MissReay 
in the Piazza at Covent Garden. He was brought from Newgate in a 
mourning-coach instead of a cart. 

1783 (August 29). Ryland the engraver, for a forgery on the East 
India Company. 

1783 (Nov. 7). John Austen, the last person hung at Tyburn. 

[Tyburn still gives a name to the white streets and squares 
of Tybumia, which are wholly devoid of interest or beauty. 
Farther west, Westbourne Park and Westbourne Grove 
take their name from the West Bourne, as the Tye Bourne 
was called in its later existence. The district called 
Bayswater was Bayard's Watering Place, connected with 
Bainardus, a Norman follower of the Conqueror, also 
commemorated in Baynard's Castle. In a burial-ground 
facmg Hyde Park (belonging to St. George's, Hanover 
Square) was buried Laurence Sterne, author of " Tristram 
Skandy," &c., 1768. 

" Sterne, after being long the idol of the town, died in a mean lodg- 
ing, without a single friend who felt interest in his fate, except Becket, 
his bookseller, who was the only person who attended his interment. 
He was buried in a graveyard near Tyburn, in the parish of Marylebone, 
and the corpse, having been marked by some of the resurrection-rnen 
(as they are called), was taken up soon afterwards, and carried to an 
anatomy professor of Cambridge. A gentleman who was present at 
the dissection told me (Malone) he recognised Sterne's face the moment 
he saw the body."— -5z> James Prior's Life of Edmund Malone, i860. 

"Sterne was a great jester, not a great humourist." — Thackeray, 
The English Humourists. 

Sir Thomas Picton, killed at Waterloo, was buried here 
in his family vault, and in the vaults under the chapel was 



HYDE PARK. 105 

laid Mrs. Anne Radcliffe, authoress of the " Mysteries of 
Udolpho." 

" Mrs. Radcliffe has a title to be considered as the first poetess of 
romantic fiction. . . . She has taken the lead in a line of composition 
appealing to those powerful and general sources of interest, a latent 
sense of supernatural awe, and curiosity concerning whatever is hidden 
and mysterious ; and if she has been ever nearly approached in this 
walk, it is at least certain that she has never been excelled, or even 
equalled." — Sir W. Scott. Life of Mrs. Radcliffe, 

Elms Lane in Baysvvater commemorates the " Elms " 
where Holinshed says that Roger Mortimer was drawn 
and hanged — " at the Elms, now Tilborne." To the north 
of Kensington Gardens stood the Baysvvater Conduit House 
(commemorated in Conduit Passage and Spring Street, 
Paddington), at the back of the houses in Craven Hill, 
which take their name from the Earl of Craven, once Lord 
of the Manor. This conduit was granted to the citizens of 
London by Gilbert Sanford in 1236, and was used to supply 
the famous conduit in Cheapside. Its picturesque building, 
shaded by an old pollard elm, was in existence in 1804, 
when people still came to drink of its waters. Soon after- 
wards it was destroyed when the Craven Hill estate was 
parcelled out, and its stream was diverted into the Serpen- 
tine river, which flows under the centre of the roadway by 
Kensington Garden Terrace.] 

Hyde Park (open to carriages, not to cabs), the principal 
recreation ground of London, takes its name from the 
manor of Hyde, which belonged to the Abbey of West- 
minster. The first Park was enclosed by Henry VIH., and 
the French ambassador hunted there in 1550. In the time 
of Charles I. the Park was thrown open to the public, but 
it was sold under the Commonwealth, when Evelyn com- 



I06 



WALKS IN LONDON, 



plained that " every coach was made to pay a shilling, and 
horse sixpence, by the sordid fellow who had purchas'd it 
of the State as they were cal'd." Cromwell was run away 
with here, as he was ostentatiously driving six horses which 
the Duke of Oldenburgh had given him, and as he was 
thrown from the box of his carriage, his pistol went off in 
his pocket, but without hurting him. Hyde Park has been 
much used of late years for radical meetings, and on 




Dorchester House. 



Sundays numerous open-air congregations on the turf 
near the Marble Arch make the air resound with " revival" 
melodies, and recall the days of Wesley and Whitefield. 

In descending the Park from Cumberland Gate to Hyde 
Park Corner, we pass on the left Dudley House (Earl of 
Dudley), which contains a fine collection of pictures. Then, 
beyond Grosvenor House and its garden, rises the beautiful 
Italian palace known as Dorchester House (R. S. Holford, 



ROTTEN ROW. 107 

Esq.), and built by Lewis Vulliamy in 1851 — 3. It is 
bolder in design than any other building in London, is 
an imitation, not, like most English buildings, a caricature, 
of the best Italian models, and has a noble play of light 
and shadow from its roof and projecting stones, 8 feet 
4 inches square. The staircase is stately and beautiful, and 
leads to broad galleries with open arcades and gilt back- 
grounds like those which are familiar in the works of Paul 
Veronese. The upper rooms contain many fine pictures, 
chiefly Italian. 

Opposite Hyde Park Corner, apparently in the act of 
threatening Apsley House, stands a Statue of Achilles by 
Westmacotf, erected in 1822 in honour of the Duke of 
Wellington and his companion heroes, from cannon taken 
at Salamanca, Vittoria, Toulouse, and Waterloo. It is 
partially a copy (though much altered) of one of the statues 
on the Monte Cavallo at Rome. 

Between this statue and the open screen erected by 
Decimus Burton in 1828 is the entrance to Rotten Row, the 
fashionable ride of London, a mile and a half in length. 
The first fragment of the walk on its southern side is the 
fashionable promenade during the season from twelve to 
two, as the corresponding walk towards the Queen's Drive is 
from five to seven. At these hours the walks are thronged, 
and the chairs (i^.) and arm-chairs (2^/.) along the edge of 
the garden are amply filled. Hyde Park was already a 
fashionable promenade two centuries ago, the " season " 
then being considered to begin with the ist of May. 
" Poor Robin's Almanack" for May, 1698, remarks — 

" Now, at Hyde Park, if fair it be, 
A show of ladies you may see." 



io8 WALKS IN LONDON, 

People seldom suspect that the odd term Rotten Row is 
a corruption of jRoute du Roi^ yet so it is. The old royal 
route from the palace of the Plantagenet kings at West- 
minster to the royal hunting forests was by what are now 
called " Birdcage VValk," " Constitution Hill," and " Rotten 
Row," and this road was kept sacred to royalty, the only 
other person allowed to use it being (from its association 
with the hunting grounds) the Grand Falconer of England. 
This privilege exists still, and every year the Duke of St. 
Alban's, as Hereditary Grand Falconer, keeps up his 
rights by driving once down Rotten Row. 

A little to the north of Rotten Row is the Serpentine^ an 
artificial lake of fifty acres, much frequented for bathing in 
summer and for skating in winter. There is a delightful 
drive along its northern bank. Near this are the oldest 
trees in the Park, some of them oaks said to have been 
planted by Charles II. In this part of the Park was the 
" Ring," now destroyed, the fashionable drive of the last 
century. The most celebrated of the many duels in Hyde 
Park, that between Lord Mohun and the Duke of Hamilton, 
in which both were killed, was fought (Nov. 15, 17 12) near 
" Price's Lodge " at the north-western angle of the Park, 
where it is merged in Kensington Gardens. 

[South of Hyde Park is the now populous and popular 

district of Belgravia^ wholly devoid of interest, and which 

none would think of visiting unless drawn thither by the 

claims of society. Its existence only dates from 1825, 

before which Mrs. Gascoigne describes it -as — 

" A marshy spot, where not one patch of green, 
No stunted shrub, nor sickly flower is seen." 

It occupies, in great part, the Ebury Farm in Pimlico, 



APSLEY HOUSE. 109 

which belonged to the Davies family till July 2, 1665, when 
Alexander Davies, the last male of the iamily, died, leaving 
it to his only daughter Mary, who married Sir Thomas 
Grosvenor in 1676. George III. foresaw, when Bucking- 
ham Palace was acquired for the Crown, that it would 
make the locality fashionable, and that people would wish 
to follow royalty, and he was desirous of buying the 
fields at the back of the palace grounds, but George 
Grenville, the then prime minister, would not sanction the 
expenditure of ;!^2o,ooo for the purpose. The result was 
the building of Grosvenor Place in 1767, which overlooks 
the gardens of the palace. 

But the " Five Fields " behind Grosvenor Place, men- 
tioned in the Tatler and Spectator as places where robbers 
lay in wait, remained vacant till 1825, when their marshy 
ground was made into a firm basis by soil brought from 
the excavations for St. Katherine's Docks, and Messrs. 
Cubitt and Smith built Belgravia. Lord Grosvenor gave 
;^3o,ooo for the " Five Fields." Lord Cowper also wished 
to buy them, and sent his agent for the purpose, but he 
came back without doing so, and when his master upbraided 
him said, " Really, my lord, I could not find it in my heart 
to give ;^2oo more than they were worth." Cubitt after- 
wards offered a ground rent of ;^6o,ooo ! 

The only tolerable feature of this wearily ugly part of 
Londoji is Belgrave Square (measuring 684 feet by 637), 
designed by George Basevi, and named from the village of 
Belgrave in Leicestershire, which belongs to the Duke of 
Westminster.] 

Close to Hyde Park Corner rises the pillared front of 
Apsley House (Duke of Wellington)^ over which, on fine 



no PVALKS IN LONDON, 

afternoons, the sun throws a spirit-like shadow from the 
statue of the great Duke upon the opposite gateway.* 
The house, which was built for Charles Bathurst, Lord 
Apsley, by the brothers Adam, was bought by the Marquis 
Wellesley in 1828 : it will always excite interest, from its 
associations as the residence of Arthur Wellesley, first 
Duke of WelHngton, who died Sept. 14, 1852.! 

" The peculiar characteristic of this great man, and which, though 
far less dazzling than his exalted genius and his marvellous fortune, 
is incomparably more useful for the contemplation of the statesman, as 
well as the moralist, is that constant abnegation of all selfish feelings, 
that habitual sacrifice of every personal, every party, consideration, to 
the single object of strict duty — duty rigorously performed in what 
station soever he might be called on to act." — Lord Brougham. 
Statesmen of George III. 

On the right of the Entrance Hall is a room appro- 
priated as a kind of Museum of Relics of the Great Dukt 
It is surrounded by glass cases containing — an enormous 
plateau, candelabra, &c., given by the Spanish and Portu- 
guese Courts after the Peninsular War; a magnificent 
shield bearing the victories of the Duke in relief, presented, 
with candelabra, by the Merchants and Bankers of Lon- 
don in 1822; and services of china given by the Russian, 
Prussian, and French Courts. In a number of table-cases 
are preserved the swords, batons, and orders (including the 
extinct order of the Saint Esprit) which belonged to the 
Duke ; his two field-glasses ; the cloak which he wore at 
Waterloo ; the sv/ord of Napoleon I. ; the dress worn by 
Tippoo Saib at his capture ; and the magnificent George set 
with emeralds, originally given by Anne to the Duke of 

* See Quarterly Review, clxxxiv. 

t Apsley House is not shown to the public^ 



A PS LEY HOUSE. Ill 

Marlborough, and presented by George IV. to the Duke 
of Wellington. 

At the foot of the stairs is a colossal statue of Napoleon I. 
by Canova, presented by the Prince Regent in 1817. The 
collection of pictures includes — 

In the Piccadilly Drawing Room. 

D. Tenters, 1655. A Peasant's Wedding — containing a number of 
small figures, most carefully finished. 

Tenters. His own Country House of Perck. 

In the Van Amburgh Room (so called from an ugly 
picture of the lion-tamer by Landseer), 

Landseer. Highland Whiskey Still. 

Ward. Napoleon in Prison in his youth. 

IVilkie. Chelsea Pensioners reading the Gazette of Waterloo, painted 
ki 1822, under the superintendence of the great Duke. 

Burnet. Greenwich Pensioners receiving the news of the Battle of 
Trafalgar. 

Hoppner. Portrait of WUliam Pitt. 

In the Waterloo Gallery (a magnificent room used for the 
Wellington Banquets on the i8th of June till the death of 
the great Duke). 

Vandyke. Charles I. A replica of the picture at Windsor. 

Wouvermans. The Return from the Chase. 

Sir Antofiio More. Two noble Portraits. 

* Correggio. Christ on the Mount of Olives — one of the most powerful 
miniature pictures in England, full of intense expression. Vasari 
speaks of this work of the master as "la piu bella cosa che si possa 
vedere di suo." It is said to have been given by the painter to an 
apothecary, in payment of a debt of four scudi. Having been taken in 
the carriage of Joseph Buonaparte, it was restored to Ferdinand VII., 
by whom it was given back to the Duke. 

"Here, as in the Noite, the light proceeds from the Sa^^our, who 
kneels at the left of the picture. Thus Christ and the angel above him 
appear in a bright light, while the sleeping disciples, and the soldiers 
who approach with Judas, are thrown into dark shadow ; but it is the 



lis WALKS IN LONDON. 

* clear obscure ' of the coming dawn, and exquisite in colour. The 
expression of heavenly grief and resignation in the countenance of 
Christ is indescribably beautiful and touching ; it is impossible to 
conceive an expression more deep and fervent." — Kiigler. 

Velazquez. "El Aguador" — the Water-seller. A very powerful 
picture. 

In the Yellow Drawing Rooms, 

Le Fevre. Napoleon I. 

Wilkie (1833). William IV. 

Guardabella. The Great Duke of Wellington. 

Sir W. Allan. The Battle of Waterloo. 

Dining Room. 

Wilkie. George TV. in a Highland dress. 
Portraits of the Allied Sovereigns. 

Statuettes of Napoleon I. and the Duke of Wellington by Count 
D'Orsay. 

Close to Apsley House was the public-house known as 
the " Pillars of Hercules," whither Squire Western is repre- 
sented as coming to seek for Sophia. Part of the ground 
on which the house is built was purchased from the 
representatives of one Allen, who, when recognised by 
George H. while holding an apple-stall at the entrance of 
the Park, as an old soldier of the Battle of Dettingen, was 
asked by the king what he would wish to have granted him, 
and demanded and received " the permission to hold a 
permanent apple-stall at Hyde Park Corner." 

Hyde Park and the Green Park were once united by the 
piece of land now cut off as the gardens behind Apsley 
House and Piccadilly Terrace. Their being divided dates 
from the time of the Civil Wars, when the royal forces had 
advanced as far as Brentford, and London was arming for its 
defence. The great bulwark of 1642 was then erected 
just where Piccadilly now divides the Parks, which were 



THE GREEN PARK. 113 

never again united : it was a fort with four bastions : all 
classes worked at it — 

** From ladies down to oyster-wenches, 
Laboured like pioneers in trenches, 
Fell to their pickaxes and tools, 
And helped the men to dig like moles." 

Butler. Hudihras. 

The Corinthian Arch opposite Apsley House, built by 
Decimus Burton in 1828, supports an ugly equestrian statue 
of the Duke of Wellington by M. C. Wyatt (1846). It was 
between this gate and that of Hyde Park that Charles H., 
on foot, attended only by the Duke of Leeds and Lord 
Cromarty, met the Duke of York returning from hunting. 
The latter alighted, and expressed his disquietude at seeing 
the king walking with two gentlemen only in attendance. 
" No kind of danger, James," said the king, " for I am 
sure no man in England will take away my life to make 
you king." * 

The road which passes beneath the arch leads into the 
Green Park (of fifty acres), and skirts the gardens of Buck- 
ingham Palace by Constitution Hill, where no less than 
three attempts have been made upon the life of Queen 
Victoria : the first by a lunatic named Oxford, June 10, 
1840; the second by Francis, another lunatic. May 30, 
1842 ; and the third by an idiot named Hamilton, May 19, 
1849. It was at the top of the hill that Sir Robert Peel 
was thrown from his horse, June 29, 1850, and received the 
injuries from which he died on the 2nd of July. The prin- 
cipal houses on the opposite side of the Park are, Stafford 
House, Bridgewater House, and Spencer House. 

• Dr. King's "Anecdotes of his Own Times." 
VOL. II. I 



114 WALKS IN LONDON, 

Constitution Hill leads into St. James's Park close to 
Buckingham Palace, of which the gardens occupy fifty acres. 
The northern part was the famous " Mulberry Garden," 
planned by James I. in 1609, mentioned by Shadwell * and 
Wycherley t as a popular place of entertainment, whither 
Dryden came to eat tarts with his mistress, Mrs. Anne 
Reeve,! ^^^^ which Evelyn (1654) speaks of as "the only 
place of refreshment about town for persons of the best qua- 
lity to be exceedingly cheated at." On this site Goring House 
was built, called Arlington House after its sale to Bennet, Earl 
of Arlington, in 1666. It was Lord Arlington, says Timbs,§ 
who brought from Holland for 60^-. the first pound of tea 
introduced into England, so that probably tea was first 
drunk on the site of Buckingham Palace. Arlington House 
was sold to John Sheffield, Duke of Buckingham, in 1698, 
and was rebuilt for him in 1703 by a Dutch architect of 
Bergen under the name of Buckingham House, when it 
was adorned with mottoes without, and frescoes within. 
Defoe II calls it " one of the great beauties of London, 
both by reason of its situation and its building." It 
was here that Plorace Walpole describes the Duke's 
third wife, daughter of James II. by Catherine Sedley, 
as receiving her company on the anniversary of " the 
martyrdom of her grandfather (Charles I.) seated in 
a chair of state, in deep mourning, attended by her 
women in like weeds, in memory of the royal martyr.U 
George II., as Prince of Wales, wished to buy the house 
from this duchess in her widowhood, but the price she 



* The Humourists. t Love in a Wood. 

% GenilemaK's Magazine, xj^SjV'^^ ? Curiosities of London. 

II Journey through England, 1722. ^ Walpole's " Reminiscences." 



ST, y AMES'S PARK. 1 15 

asked was too high, and it was left for George II. to pur- 
chase it from Sir Charles Sheffield, in 1762, for ;£2 1,000. 
In 1775 it was settled upon Queen Charlotte instead of 
Somerset House, and was called the Queen's House. In 
1825 — 37 it was rebuilt by Nash for George IV. (being 
always immediately over the Tye Brook, now a sewer), and 
in 1846 the east front (360 feet long) was added by Blore. It 
is imposing — only by its size. The Interior of the palace 
contains little that is worthy of notice beyond some of the 
collection of pictures formed by George IV., chiefly of the 
Dutch school. The white marble staircase is very hand- 
some. In the former State Ball Room are Vandyke's 
portraits of Charles I. and Henrietta Maria, and Winter- 
halter's portraits of the Queen and Prince Consort. In the 
State Dining Room is Lawrence's full-length portrait of 
George IV. The Private Apartments contain many royal 
portraits of great interest. 

In the Gardens is a Lake of five acres. A Pavilion is 
adorned with scenes from Comus by Eastlake, Maclise, 
Landseer, Dyce, Stanfield, Uwins, Leslie, and Ross. In the 
Royal Mews (visible by an order from the Master of the 
Horse) the Queen's State Coach may be seen. 

St. James's Park (87 acres) was a bare, undrained field 
belonging to the hospital, afterwards St. James's Palace, till 
it was enclosed by Henry VIII. Charles II., on his return 
from his exile, came back imbued with the Dutch taste for 
gardening, and laid it out with a long straight canal and 
regular avenues of elms and limes, such as were the Green 
Walk or Duke Humphrey's Walk, the Long Lime Walk, and 
the Close Walk or Jacobite's Walk. Evelyn mentions the elms 
in one branchy walk as "intermingling their reverend tresses." 



Ii6 



WALKS IN LONDON, 



The laying-out was probably due to Lc Notre, who was 
employed at Wrest, the best of the trees which had existed 
before his time having been blown down in the great storm 
which marked the night of Oliver Cromwell's death. Near the 
south-west corner was Rosamund's Pond, the *' Rosamund's 
Lake" of Pope, painted by Hogarth, and mentioned by 




In St. James's Pai j 



Otway, Congreve, Addison, Colley Gibber, and many 
other authors: it was filled up in 1770. In 1827 — 29 the 
whole plan of the Park was modernised, and both water 
and walks were made to wind and twist under George IV. : 
their rural character was, however, still sufficient to give 
application to the title of Wycherley's comedy — Love in a 
Wood, 07' St. /ames's Park. 



ST, yAMES'S PARK. 117 

St. James's is far the prettiest of the London parks, and 
the most frequented by the lower orders. On Sundays 
they come by thousands to sit upon the seats mentioned 
by Goldsmith,* where, " if a man be splenetic, he may every 
day meet companions, with whose groans he may mix his 
own, and pathetically talk of the weather," and they bring 
bread to feed the water -fowl, which are the direct descend- 
ants of those introduced and fed by Charles II. Hither 
Pepys came (Aug. 18, 1661) to gaze at "the great variety 
of fowle " which he never saw before ; and here Charles II. 
increased his popularity by coming unattended to look after 
his favourite ducks. 

" Even his indolent amusement of playing with his dogs, and feeding 
his ducks in St. James's Park (which I have seen him do), made the 
common people adore him, and consequently overlook in him what in 
a prince of a different temper they might have been out of humour at." 
— Colley Cither's Apology. 1 740. 

At the time the water-fowl were first introduced, St. 
James's Park became also a kind of Zoological Garden for 
London. 

"9 February, 1664-5. I went to St. James's Park, where T saw 
various animals. . . The Parke was at this time stored with numerous 
flocks of severall sorts of ordinary and extraordinary wild fowle, breeding 
about the Decoy, which, for being neere so grette a City, and among 
such a concourse of souldiers and people, is a singular and diverting 
thing. There were also deere of severall countries, —white ; spotted 
like leopards ; antelopes ; an ellc ; red deere ; roebucks ; staggs ; 
Guinea goates ; Arabian sheepe, &c. There were withy-potts or 
nests for the wild fowle to lay their eggs in, a little above ye surface of 
ye water." — Evelyn. 

The exiled Cavaliers had brought back with them the 
habit of skating, and to St. James's Park Evelyn went 

• Essays. 



Il8 WALKS IN LONDON. 

(Dec. I, 1662) to see them skate ** after the manner of 
Hollanders; " and Pepys (Dec. 15, 1662) followed the Duke 
of York into the Park, " where, though the ice was broken 
and dangerous, yet he would go slide upon his scates." 
The exercise, however, seems to have passed out of fashion, 
for in 171 1 Swift wrote to Stella of "delicious walking 
weather, and the canal and Rosamund's Pond full of rabble 
sliding, and with skaitts, if you know what it is." 

The artificial water is now crossed by an ugly iron bridge, 
from which, however, there is a noble view of the new 
Foreign Office. On the peace of 1814, a Chinese bridge 
and pagoda were erected here, and illuminated at night. 
It was this which caused Canova, when asked what struck 
him most in England, to answer, " that the trumpery 
Chinese bridge in St. James's Park should be the produc- 
tion of the Government, while that of Waterloo was the 
work of a private company." * One of the most remarkable 
sinecures ever known was that of the salaried Governor of 
Duck Island, which once adorned the water near this point, 
an appointment which was bestowed by Charles II. upon 
St, Evremond, and by Queen Caroline upon Stephen Duck, 
" the thresher poet," ridiculed by Swift. It was while walk- 
ing in St. James's Park on August 12, 1678, that Charles II. 
received the first intimation of the so-called " Popish Plot." 
One Kirby, a chemist, came up to him and said, " Sir, keep 
within company ; your enemies have a design upon your 
life, and you may be shot in this very walk." t Prior and 
Swift used constantly to walk round the Park together. 
" Mr. Prior," said Swift, " walks to make himself fat, and I 
to keep myself down.*' 

• Qtiarterly Review. ♦ Hume, 



ST. JAMES'S PARK. 1 19 

When he laid out the Park, Charles II. removed the 
Mall, for the game of Palle Malle, from the other side of 
St. James's Palace to the straight walk on its north side, 
upon which the gardens of Stafford House, the Palace, 
Marlborough House, and Carlton Terrace now look down. 
Here the fashionable game of striking a ball with a mallet 
through an iron ring down a straight walk strewn with 
powdered cockle-shells was played by the cavaliers of the 
Court. Pepys (April 2, 1661) mentions coming to see the 
Duke of York play, and Charles himself was fond of the 
game. The flatterer Waller * says — 

♦* Here a well-polished Mall gives us the joy 
To see our Prince his matchless force employ." 

Till the present century, the Mall continued to be the most 
fashionable promenade of London, but the trees were then 
ancient and picturesquely grouped, and the company did 
not appear as they do now by Rotten Row, for the ladies 
were in full dress, and gentlemen carried their hats under 
their arms. 

" The ladies, gaily dress'd, the Mall adorn 
With various dyes, and paint the sunny mom.'* 

Gay. Trivia. 

" My spirits sunk, and a tear started into my eyes, as I brought to 
mind those crowds of beauty, rank, and fashion, which, till within these 
few years, used to be displayed in the centre Mall of this Park on 
Sunday evenings during the spring and summer. Here used to 
promenade, for one or two hours after dinner, the whole British world 
of gaiety, beauty, and splendour. Here could be seen in one moving 
mass, extending the whole length of the Mall, 5000 of the most lovely 
women in this country of female beauty, all splendidly attired, and 
accompanied by as many well-dressed men." — Sir Richard Phillips. 
Morning Walk from London to Kew, 1807. 

• Poem on St. James's Park, i66x. 



120 WALKS IN LONDON, 

While he played at Palle Malle here in his prosperity, 
James Duke of York must often have remembered his 
escape by this way in his fifteenth year, when, while all 
the young people in the palace were engaged late at night 
in playing at hide-and-seek, he slipped up to the room of 
his sister Elizabeth, shut up there the favourite little dog 
which was sure to have betrayed him, and gliding down the 
back stairs and through the dark garden, let himself out 
of a postern door into the Park, and so to the river. 

It was by this road also that Charles I. (Jan. 30, 
1648-9) walked to his execution. 

" About 10 o'clock Colonel Hacker knocked at the King's chamber 
door (in St. James's Palace), and, having been admitted, came in 
trembling, and announced to the King that it was time to go to White- 
hall ; and soon afterwards the King, taking the Bishop (Juxon) by the 
Ixand, proposed to go. Charles then walked out through the garden of 
the palace into the Park, where several companies of foot waited as his 
guard ; and, attended by the Bishop on one side, and Colonel Tom- 
linson on the other, both bare-headed, he walked fast down the Park, 
sometimes cheerfully calling on the guard to ' march apace.' As he 
went along, he said ' he now went to strive for a heavenly crown, with 
less solicitude than he had often encouraged his soldiers to fight for an 
earthly diadem.' " — Trial of Charles I. Family Library, xxxi. 

Till a very few years ago, when it was blown down, there 
existed in Sir John Lefevre's garden, at the corner of 
Spring Gardens, a tree, which the king on this his last walk 
lingered to point out, saying, " That tree was planted by 
my brother Henry." And there still remains, at this corner 
of the Park, a remnant of old days coeval with the king's 
execution, in Milk Fair, as the pretty cow-stalls which still 
exist under the elm-trees used to be called. The milk- 
vendors are proud of the number of generations through 
which the stalls have been held in their families. We 



ST. y AMES'S PARK. 



121 



learn from Gay's "Trivia" that asses' milk was formerly 

sold here — 

*' Before proud gates attending asses bray, 
Or arrogate with solemn pace the way ; 
These grave physicians with their milky cheer, 
The love-sick maid and dwindling beau repair." 

The houses behind Milk Fair stand in Spring Gardens^ 
the Spring (Fountain) Garden of Whitehall Palace, which 




Milk Fair, St. James's Park. 



formerly had its archery butts, bathing pond, and bowling- 
green. Milton lived in a house at Charing Cross which 
*' overlooked the Spring Garden " before he went to reside 
in Scotland Yard. 

Upon the east end of the Park — on the site formerly occu- 
pied by the vast buildings of Whitehall — the Admiralty, the 
Horse Guards, the Treasury, and the Foreign Office now 
look down. The wide open space in front of the Horse 



122 



WALKS IN LONDON, 



Guards was once the Tilt Yard of the palace. The centre 
of this space is the only position in London in which the 
Alexandrian ObeHsk could be placed with advantage. 
Here stands the mortar cast at Seville for Napoleon, used 
by Soult at Cadiz, and captured after the retreat of Sala- 
manca. 

The south side of the Park is bounded by Bird Cage 




The Salamanca Gun. 



Walk, where an aviary was first erected by James I. In 
the time of Charles 11. , who had a passion for birds, it was 
lined with cages, and the " Keeper of the King's Birds " 
was a regular office. Till as late as 1828 no one, except 
the Duke of St. Alban's, as Hereditary Grand Falconer, 
was permitted to drive down the carriage way on this side 
the Park, except the royal family. 



ST. JAMES'S PARK, 123 

In former days the Park gave sanctuary. Timbs men- 
tions how serious an offence it was to draw a sword there. 
Congreve in his Old Bachelor makes Bluffe say, " My 
blood rises at that fellow. I can't stay where he is ; and I 
must not draw in the Park." The Park has been open to 
the public ever since the days of Charles II. Caroline, 
wife of George II., wished to make it once more a private 
appurtenance of the palace, and asked Sir Robert Walpole 
what it would cost. " Only three crowns," was his reply.* 

• Walpoliana. i. 9. 



CHAPTER III. 
REGENT STREET AND REGENT'S PARK. 

IN front of the Duke of York's Column, where the 
ridiculous statue, nicknamed the " Quoit Player," diS' 
graces Waterloo Place, Regent Street leads to the north 
from Pall Mall. Nearly a mile in length, it was built by 
John Nash, and takes its name from the Prince Regent, 
afterwards George IV. The portion known as the Quadrant 
originally had colonnades advancing the whole width of 
the pavement : these were removed in 1848, to the great 
injury of its effect. 

[From Regent Circus, Coventry Street (on the right) leads 
into Leicester Square. Great Windmill Street, to the north, 
commemorates the rural state of this district as late as 
1658, when a windmill here gave its name to the " Wind- 
mill Fields." Nollekens the sculptor, who died in 1823, 
narrates that when he was a little boy his mother used to 
take him to walk by a long pond near this windmill, and 
every one paid a halfpenny at the miller's hatch for the 
privilege of walking in his grounds. In the house of his 
brother William in Great Windmill Street, the famous Dr. John 
Hunter died saying, " If I had strength enough to hold a pen, 
I would write how easy and pleasant a thing it is to die." 



LEICESTER SQUARE » 125 

Ever since the Edict of Nantes, when exiled gentility 
began to congregate here, as exiled industry in Spitalfields, 
Leicester Square has been the most popular resort of 
foreigners of the middle classes, especially of French 
visitors to London. Few spots in the metropolis have 
undergone more changes from fashion than this. Even to 
the present century the square was known as " Leicester 
Fields," and until the time of Charles IL it continued to 
be unenclosed country. On what is the north side of the 
square, Leicester House, which appears in Faithorne's map 
of 1658 as the only house in this neighbourhood, was then 
built for Robert Sidney, Earl of Leicester,* from whom it 
was rented by Elizabeth, Queen of Bohemia — " the Queen 
of Hearts" — who died there Feb. 13, 1662. To this 
house, in 1668, Pepys went to visit Colbert, the French 
Ambassador; and here Prince Eugene was residing in 
171 1. The house continued to be the property of the 
Sidneys till the end of the last century, when it was sold 
to the Tulk family for ;£90,ooo, which sum the Sidneys em 
ployed in freeing Penshurst from its encumbrances. Mean- 
time, the Sidneys had not lived here, and Leicester House 
had become habitually "the pouting-place of princes."! 
George H. resided there as Prince of Wales from 17 17 to 
1720, after he had been turned out of St. James's by his 
father, for too freely exhibiting his indignation at the cruel 
treatment of his mother, Sophia Dorothea, condemned to 
a lifelong imprisonment in the castle of Zell. William, 
Duke of Cumberland, the hero of Culloden, was born there 
in 17 21. Frederick, Prince of Wales, when he, in his 

• Sidney Alley still exists. Queen Street, Blue Street, and Orange Street 
record the distinguishing colours of the Earl's stables, 
t Pennant. 



126 WALKS IN LONDON, 

turn, quarrelled with his father in 1737, came to reside in 
Leicester Square with his wife and children. It was there 
that he died (March 20, 1751), suddenly exclaiming, " Je 
sens la mort," and falling into the arms of Desnoyers, 
the dancing-master, who was performing upon the violin,* 
while the royal family were playing at cards in the next 
room ; an event which so little affected George II., that 
when he received the news as he was playing at cards with 
the Countess of Walmoden, he said simply, " Fritz ist 
todt," + and went on with the game. 

As Leicester House was insufficient to contain his 
numerous family, the Prince of Wales knocked through a 
communication with Savile House, which adjoined it on 
the west. Here George III. passed his boyhood, and 
used to act plays (of which the handbills still exist) with 
his little brothers and sisters. It was in front of this house 
that he was first proclaimed as king. Savile House con- 
tinued to be the residence of Augusta, the Princess- 
Dowager, till her removal to Carlton House in 1766, 
and Frederick William, youngest brother of George III., 
died there (May 10, 1765) at the age of sixteen. 
At an earlier period Savile House was the place where 
the Marquis of Carmarthen entertained Peter the Great, 
and where the Czar would demolish eight bottles of sack 
in an evening, besides a pint of brandy spiced with pepper, 
and a bottle of sherry. The house was completely pillaged 
during Lord George Gordon's riots, when the people tore 
up the rails of the square and used them as weapons. 

In the last century Leicester Square was the especial 

* Horace Walpole says of Pavonarius^ his German valet de chambre. 
+ Walpole. 



LEICESTER SQUARE. 127 

square of painters. Sir James Thornhill lived there and 
died there (Oct. 25, 1764), and his far more illustrious son- 
in-law, William Hogarth, came up almost at the same time 
from Chiswick to die in his London house, which was at 
the south-east corner where Archbishop Tenison's school 
now stands. 

" Here closed in death the attentive eyes 
That saw the manners in the face." * 

Hogarth's house was afterwards inhabited by the Polish 
patriot, Thaddeus Kosciusko, and Byron's Countess Guic 
cioh lived in it during her stay in England. In the next 
house (that adjoining the Alhambra), John Hunter, the 
famous surgeon, first began to collect (1785) his Museum, 
now at the Surgeons' Hall. 

In No. 47, on the west side of the square, Sir Joshua 
Reynolds lived from 1761 to 1792. 

" His study was octagonal, some twenty feet long by sixteen broad, 
and about fifteen feet high. The window was small and square, and 
the sill nine feet from the floor. His sitter's chair moved on casters, 
and stood above the floor about a foot and a half. He held his 
palettes by the handle, and the sticks of his brushes were eighteen 
inches long. He wrought standing, and with great celerity ; he rose 
early, breakfasted at nine, entered his study at ten, examined designs 
or touched unfinished portraits till eleven brought a sitter, painted till 
four, then dressed, and gave the evening to company." — Allan 
Cunningham. Lives of the Painters. 

His dinner parties, "of a cordial intercourse between persons of 
distinguished pretensions ot all kinds : poets, physicians, lawj'ers, 
deans, historians, actors, temporal and spiritual peers. House of 
Commons men, men of science, men of letters, painters, philosophers, 
and lovers of the arts, meeting on a ground of hearty ease, good* 
humour, and pleasantry', exalt my respect for the memory of Reynolds. 
It was no prim fine table he set them down to. Often the dinner- 
board prepared for seven or eight required to accommodate itself to 

* From the epitaph by Dr. Johnson preserved by Mrs. Piozzi. 



128 WALKS IN LONDON. 

fifteen or sixteen ; for often, on the very eve of dinner, would Sir 
Joshua tempt afternoon visitors with intimation that Johnson, or 
Garrick, or Goldsmith, was to dine there." — Forster's Life of Gold- 
smith. 

It was on the steps of this house that Sir Joshua one 
morning found the child who was painted by him in the 
charming picture of " Puck," cheered at the auction when 
it was sold to Rogers the poet. The mushroom and 
fawn's ears were added in deference to the wish of Alder- 
man Boydell, who wished to introduce the beautiful 
portrait of the boy into his Shakspeare. The near neigh- 
bourhood of Hogarth and Reynolds was not conducive 
to their harmony. 

*' Never were two great painters of the same age and country so 
unlike each other ; and their unlikeness as artists was the result of their 
unlikeness as men ; their only resemblance consisting in their honesty 
and earnestness of purpose. It was not to be expected that they should 
do each other justice, and they did not. . . . ' Study the great 
works of the great masters for ever,' said Reynolds. * There is only 
one school,' cried Hogarth, * and that is kept by Nature.' What was 
uttered on one side of Leicester Square was pretty sure to be contra- 
dicted on the other, and neither would make the advance that might 
have reconciled the views of both." — Leslie and Taylor's Life of Sir 
y. Reynolds. 

On the south of Leicester Square is the opening of an 
ugly court — St. Martin's Court — of many associations. On 
the left is the chapel — Orange Street Chapel — built by sub- 
scription in 1684 for the use of the French Protestants, 
who, after long sufferings in their own country, took refuge 
in England on the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. 
Within its walls they prayed for the prince by whom they 
had been forbidden to follow their trades and professions, 
forbidden Christian burial, and exiled, and whom yet they 
respected as " the Almighty's scourge." 



LEICESTER SQUARE, 12<) 

The adjoining house, ugly and poverty-stricken as it looks 
now, was that in which Sir Isaac Newton passed the latter 
years of his life, in an honoured old age, from 1 710. to 
1725, two years before his death at Kensington. He had 
been made Master of the Mint under Anne, and in 1703 
became President of the Royal Society. Always frugal in 
his own habits, he devoted his wealth to the poor, especially 
to the French refugees in his neighbourhood. In the 
observatory on the top of his house he was wont to say 
that the happiest years of his life were spent. This ob- 
servatory, once used as a Sunday school, was kept up till 
1824 for the inspection of the foreign visitors who came 
by thousands to visit it, and who now, when they come to 
seek it, turn away disgusted at the treatment which the 
shrines of their illustrious dead meet with at the hands of 
Englishmen, for it was sold some years since to supply 
some pews for the chapel next door. 

The house was afterwards inhabited by Dr. Burney, 
whose celebrated daughter wrote her "Evelina" here. 
John Opie, the artist, who died in 1807, lived close by; 
and Thomas Holcroft, the novelist and dramatist, was 
born in St. Martin's Street in 1745, being the son of a shoe- 
maker. 

Leicester Square was formerly decorated by a statue of 
George I., brought from the seat of the Duke of Bucking- 
ham at Canons in 1747. After the square was railed in, 
it became a favourite site for duels, and the duel between 
Captain French and Captain Coote was fought here in 
1699, m which the latter was killed. In his Esmond, 
Thackera/, true to his picture of the times, narrates how 
Lord Mohun and Lord Castlewood — having seen Mrs. 

VOL. TL K 



130 WALKS IN LONDON. 

Bracegirdle act, and having supped at the Greyhound at 
Charing Cross — quarrelled, and took chairs to fight it out 
in Leicester Square. 

From the beginning of the present century Leicester 
Square began to decline, and gradually presented that 
aspect of ruin which is said to have given rise to Ledru 
RoUin's work on the decadence of England. In 185 1 its 
area was leased, and its miseries were concealed by the 
erection of Wyld's Globe, while the neighbouring houses 
were given up to taverns, exhibitions of waxworks, acrobatic 
feats, or panoramas. After the Globe was cleared away, 
the area remained uncared for, and the statue perished 
slowly under generations of practical jokes, till Mr. Albert 
Grant took pity upon the square in 1874, decorated it in the 
centre with a statue of Shakspeare (a copy of that in West- 
minster Abbey), and at the corners with busts of four of 
the most famous residents — Hogarth, Newton, Hunter, and 
Reynolds, and opened it to the public. 

From Leicester Square, Princes Street and Wardour 
Street — beloved by collectors of old furniture — lead in a 
direct line to Oxford Street. On the right opens Gerard 
Street, which derives its name from the house facing 
Macclesfield Street, which was built by Gerard, Earl of 
Macclesfield, who died in 1694. The profligate Lord 
Mohun lived in this house, and hither his body was brought 
home when he was killed in a duel by the Duke of Hamil- 
ton. In No. 43 of this street, in a house looking on the 
gardens of Leicester House * — ** the fifth door on the left 
hand coming from Newport Street," as he wrote to his 
friend Elmes Steward — lived Dryden, with his wife, Lady 

• Dedication of Z?a« 5V3ai //aw to the I arl of Leicester 



GERARD STREET, 131 

Elizabeth Howard ; here he died, May i, 1701, and here, if 
it took place at all, occurred the extraordinary scene after 
his death described by Johnson,* with the heartless prac- 
tical joke played at his funeral by Lord JefFeries. The poet 
** used most commonly to write in the ground-room next the 
street." f 

" Dryden may be properly considered as the father of English criti- 
cism, as the writer who first taught us to determine upon principles the 
merits of composition." — Dr. Johnson. 

*' The matchless prose of Dryden, rich, various, natural, animated, 
pointed, lending itself to the logical and the narrative, as weU as the 
narrative and picturesque ; never balking, never cloying, never weary- 
ing. The vigour, freedom, variety, copiousness, that speaks an ex- 
haustless fountain from its source : nothing can surpass Dryden."— 
Lord Brougham. 

" I may venture to say in general terms, that no man hath written in 
our language so much, and so various matters, and in so various 
manners, so well .... His prose had all the clearness imaginable, 
together with all the nobleness of expression, all the graces and orna- 
ments proper and peculiar to it, without deviating into the language or 
diction of poetry .... His versification and his numbers he could 
learn of nobody, for he first possessed those talents in perfection in 
our own tongue ; and they who have succeeded in them since his time 
have been indebted to his example ; and the more they have been able 
to imitate him, the better they have succeeded." — Congreve. 

Edmund Burke was living in Gerard Street at the time 
of the trial of Warren Hastings, and at the " Turk's Head " 
in this street he united with Johnson and Reynolds in 1763 
in founding the " Literary Club," to which the clever men of 
the day usually thought it the greatest honour to belong. I 

" • I believe Mr. Fox will allow me to say,' remarked the Bishop of 
St. Asaph, * that the honour of being elected into the Turk's Head 
Club is not inferior to that of being the representative of Westminster 
or Surrey.' " — Forsier. 

* Lives of the Poets, vol. i. + Pope in Spence's "Anecdotes.** 

. . t 1 hc-club still exists, but is called the " Johnson." ' 



133 WALKS IN LONDON. 

It was to this society that Goldsmith was admitted by 
the friendship of Johnson, before his more important works 
were pubHshed, but came unwillingly, feeling that he 
sacrificed something for the sake of good company, and 
shut himself out of several places where he " used to play 
the fool very agreeably;" and here he would entertain and 
astonish literary supper parties with his favourite song about 
" an old woman tossed in a blanket seventeen times as 
high as the moon." 

In Macclesfield Street is the Church of St. Anne, SohOy 
consecmted by Bishop Compton in 1685, and dedicated 
to the mother of the Virgin out of compliment to the Prin- 
cess Anne : its tower is said to have been made as Danish 
as possible to flatter her Danish husband. Against the 
outer wall is a tablet erected by Horace Walpole, and 
inscribed — 

" Near this place is interred Theodore, King of Corsica, who died in 
this parish, Dec. ii, 1756, immediately after leaving the King's Bench 
Prison, by the benefit of the Act of Insolvency, in consequence of 
which he registered his kingdom of Corsica for the use of his creditors. 

The grave, great teacher to a level brings 
Heroes and beggars, galley-slaves and kings. 
But Theodore this moral learned e'er dead : 
Fate pour'd its lessons on his living head, 
Bestow'd a kingdom, and denied him bread." 

This unfortunate king was a Prussian — Stephen Theodore, 
Baron de Neuhofif. While in the service of Charles XII. of 
Sweden, the protection which he afforded to the inhabit- 
ants of Corsica induced them, in 1736, to offer him their 
crown. He ruled disinterestedly, but the embarrassments 
to which he was reduced by want of funds for the payment 
of his army forced him to come to seek them in London, 



ST, ANNE'S, SOHO. 133 

where he was arrested for debt. Horace Walpole tried to 
raise a subscription for him, but only fifty pounds were 
obtainable. In Voltaire's " Candide " Theodore tells his 
story — 

" Je suis Theodore ; on m'a elu roi en Corse ; on m'a appele voire 
tnajestd ; et S present a peine m'appelle-t-on monsieur ; j'ai fait frapper 
de la monnaie, et je ne possede pas un denier ; j'ai eu deux secretaires 
d'etat, et j'ai a peine un valet ; je me suis vu sur un trone, et j'ai long- 
temps 6te a Londres en prison sur la paille." — Ch. XXVI. 

" King Theodore recovered his liberty only by giving up his effects 
to his creditors under the Act of Insolvency ; all the effects, however, 
that he had to give up were his right, such as it was, to the throne of 
Corsica, which was registered accordingly in due form for the benefit 
of his creditors. As soon as Theodore was set at liberty, he took a 
chair and went to the Portuguese minister; but not finding him 
at home, and not having a sixpence to pay, he desired the chairmen to 
carry him to a tailor in Soho, whom he prevailed upon to harbour him; 
but he fell sick the next day, and died in three more." — Horace Walpole. 

The man who allowed King Theodore to die in his house 
was too poor to pay for his funeral, and the expense was 
undertaken by John Wright, an oilman in Compton Street, 
who said that he was " willing /^r once to pay the funeral 
expenses of a king." 

One of the first seat-holders in the church was Catherine 
Sedley, mistress of James II. In the vauk beneath is buried 
Lord Camelford, killed in a duel at Kensington in 1804. 
William Hazlitt the essayist (1830) rests in the churchyard.* 

" In critical disquisitions on the leading characters and works of the 
drama, he is not surpassed in the whole range of EngUsh literature." 
Sir A. Alison'' s Hist, of Europe. 

The brick wall of St. Anne's Churchyard may recall the 
familiar figure of Sir Joshua Reynolds, who bought there — 

• His tombstone has been moved from his grave, and stuck against the wall 
near that oi King Theodore. 



134 WALKS IN LONDON. 

from a collection of ballads hanging against the wall — ^a 
rude woodcut, the chiaro-oscuro of which he used in his 
picture of Lord Ligonier on horseback. 

From the north-east corner of Leicester Square, Cran- 
hourne Street, so called from the second title of the Cecils, 
leads into Long Acre, which, as far back as 1695, was the 
especial domain of coach-builders. It derives its name 
from a narrow strip of ground which belonged to the Abbey 
of Westminster. Here Oliver Cromwell is proved by the 
rate-books (in which he is called " Captain Cromwell ") to 
have lived (on the south side) from 1637 to 1643. 

Dryden lived here, in a house lacing Rose Street 
(No. 137) from 1682 to 1686, and was attacked and wounded 
opposite his own house by the " Rose- Alley Ambuscade " — 
myrmidons hired by Wilmot, Earl of Rochester, to punish 
him for having assisted Lord Mulgrave in his " Essay on 
Satire." John Taylor, the voluminous " Water Poet," who 
published no less than eighty volumes in the reigns of 
James L and Charles I., also lived in Long Acre, where he 
kept a tavern. Being forced to change its sign during the 
Commonwealth from the "Morning Crown," he changed 
it to that of his own head. Whitefield preached, in 1756, 
at the chapel in Long Acre amidst many petty persecutions 
and interruptions. *' The sons of Jubal and Cain continue 
to serenade me at Long Acre Chapel," he wrote to Lady 
Huntingdon. 

The wife of a cobbler in Long Acre became celebrated as 
the Chloe of Prior, described by Pope as being only " a 
poor mean creature," with whom " he used to bury him- 
self for whole days and nights together," though one of 
Prior's poems begins — 



THE GARRICK CLUB. 135. 

** When Chloe's picture was to Venus shown, 
Surprised, the goddess took it for her own." 

Newport Street ^ Long Acre^ commemorates the mansion 
of Lord Newport in the time of Charles I. 

From the junction of Cranbourne Street and Long Acre, 
Garrick Street leads towards Covent Garden. Here (right) 
is the Garrick Club, founded 1831, "for the general patron- 
age of the Drama ; for the purpose of combining a club 
on economical principles with the advantages of a Literary 
Society ; for the promotion of a Theatrical Library ; and for 
bringing together the patrons of the Drama." The interest- 
ing Collection of Theatrical Portraits may be seen on Wed- 
nesdays (except in September) from eleven to three, on 
the personal introduction of a member. We may especially 
notice — 

Co}Jee Roo7n {beghumig from the left), 

Mrs. Y2Xt%—Coies. 

Mrs. %\dAoxiS,—Harlo7ve. 

*' Venice Preserved " — Garrick and Mrs. Gibber — Zoffany, 

Sheridan — Tredcroft. 

Foote — Sir J. Reynolds. 

Barton Booth — Vajtderhank. 

GaiTick and Mrs. Pritchard in " Macbeth " — Zoffany, 

Mrs. Pope — Sir M. A. Shee. 

Woodward as " Petrucchio" — Vandergucht. 

Mrs. Clive as " Fine Lady " — Hogarth. 

"Lock and Key" — Munden, E. Knight, Mrs. Orger, and Miss 
Cubitt— c:/m/. 

Mrs. Pritchard, the "Inspired Idiot " of Dr. Johnson — Hayman, 

Nathaniel Lee — Dohson. 

Colley Gibber as " Lord Foppington " — Grisoni. 

Garrick — Pine. 

Q\nn— Hogarth {?). 

" Love, Law, and Physic " — Mathews, Liston, Blanchard, and 
Emery — Clint. 



136 WALKS IN LONDON. 

Strangers^ Dining Room» 

Charles Bannister — Zoffany, 
Quin — Hogarth. 

Smoking Room. 

Lugger coming out of Monnikendam — Stanfield. 

Exterior and Interior of a Flemish Inn — Louis Haghe, 

Halt of a Caravan at Baalbec — D. Roberts. * 

Private Dining Room. 

A number of "Water-colour portraits by Dewilde, and oiiginal 
sketches by John Leech. 

Staircase. 

Mrs. Bracegirdle. 

Charles Kemble as "Macbeth" — Morton. 

Henderson and Wilson as " Hamlet " and " Polonius." 

The Arch of Ancona — Stanfield. 

Miss O Neil— (?. F. Joseph. 

Madame Catalani — Lonsdale. * 

Henderson as " Macbeth " — Romney {?). 

Henry Johnston as " Norval" — Sir W. Allan, 

Charles Kean as Louis XL— ^. W. Phillips, 

Mrs. Hartley — Angelica Kauffmann. 

Master Betty as " Douglas " — Opie. 

Morning Room. 

Miss Lydia Kelly — Harlowe. 
Kemble as " Cato " — Sir T. Lawrence. 
Mrs. Stirling as " Peg Woffington "—H. W, Phillips, 
Garrick —Zoffany. 

Weston as " Billy Button ''—Zoffany. 
Tope— Sir M. A. Shee. 

King and Mrs. Baddeley in the "Clandestine Marriage '"'—Zoffany. 
T. King— Wilson. 

Mathews as " Monsieur Malet " — Clint. 
Mrs. Oldfield— 5z> G. Kneller. 

Bannister ("honest Jack, whom even footpads could not find in theii 
hearts to injure ")* and Parsons in " The Village Lawyer " — Dewilde. 
• Sir W. Scott n the Quarterly. 



GOLDEN SQUARE. 137 

Mrs. Woffington — Mercier. 
Mrs. Abington as " Lady Bab ''—Hick^, 
Mrs. Woffington — Hogarth. 
Miss Farren — Gainsborough (?). 
Rich and Family — Hogarth. 
King as " Touchstone " — Zoffany. 
W. M. Thackeray— Tb^w Gilbert. 

Garrick and Mrs. Pritchard in the " Suspicious Husband "— ^ 
Hay?nan. 
Macklin at ninety-three — Opie. 
Young as King John — Landseer. 
Mathews in various characters — Harlowe."] 

Returning to Regent Street, a little to the right from the 
Quadrant, " not exactly in anybody's way, to or from any- 
where," is Golden Square^ immortalised in " Humphrey 
Clinker " and " Nicholas Nickleby." It contains a statue of 
George II. brought from Canons. Lord Bolingbroke lived 
in this square while Secretary of War, 1 704 — 8, and here the 
artist Angelica Kauffmann married a valet under the belief 
that he was his master, Count Horn. 

Golden Square is now in a thickly populated district, 
though it was here, " as in a place far from the haunts of 
men," that in the reign of Charles II., " when the great 
Plague was raging, a pit was dug into which the dead carts 
had nightly shot corpses by scores. No foundations were laid 
there till two generations had passed without any return of 
the pestilence, and till the ghastly spot had long been sur- 
rounded by buildings. It may be added that the " pest- 
field may still be seen marked in the maps of London as 
late as the end of the reign of George III." '^ 

At No. 8, Argyll Place, on the right of Regent Street, 
James Northcote the painter died, July 13, 1831. Haydon, in 

• Macaulay, "History of England." 



138 WALKS IN LONDON. 

his " Autobiography," gives a most comical account of a visit 
to him here. 

On the left, Hanover Street leads into Hanover Square, 
which received its name instead of that of Oxford Square, 
as was first intended, in the days of the early popularity of 
George I. The square was built about 1731, when the 
place for executions was removed from Tyburn, lest the 
inhabitants of "the new square" should be annoyed by 
them. The bronze Statue of William Pitt on the south side 
of the square is by Chantrey, and was set up in 1831. 

"When convinced of the propriety of anything in his works, 
Chantrey was not to be moved, and he resisted all admonitions, criti- 
cisms, and even threats. He persisted in raising the statue of Pitt in 
Hanover Square, on a high pedestal, against the wish of the Com- 
mittee ; but he respectfully volunteered to relinquish the commission, 
rather than his intention of placing the figure in its present lofty posi- 
tion." — yones's Recollections of Chantrey. 

The neighbouring church of St. George, Hanover Square, 
is well known as a Temple of Hymen, (also named in 
honour of George I.), and as the goal of fashionable novelists, 
from its almost monopoly of marriages in high life. It 
was built by John James in 1724, being one of Queen 
Anne's fifty new churches. Its portico and tower are 
handsome. Its marriage registers are a perfect library of 
the autographs of illustrious persons, amid which the bold 
signature of " Wellington " frequently appears. In the 
beginning of the present century from 1,100 to 1,200 
couples were sometimes united here in the course of a 
year. Nelson's Lady Hamilton was married here, Sept. 6, 
1791. 

The portion of Regent Street after Oxford Street is 



THE REGENTS PARK. 1^9 

crossed ends in the Church of All Souls, Langham 
Place. 

"Of all the mad freaks which ever entered the brain of architect or 
man to devise, this church far out-Herods all the rest. It is in the form 
of a circular temple of the Ionic order, over which is placed a smaller 
kind of temple, also circular, with fourteen Corinthian pillars; from 
this latter rises a steeple of considerable height, similar to those which 
we see upon the towers of village churches in Germany. John Nash 
was the author of this specimen of architecture." — Passavant. A 
German Artist in England. 

Beyond this, some trees on the right mark what was 
once the garden of Foley House, which was made a free- 
hold by the Duke of Portland in exchange for the permis- 
sion to build north of it, such building on the Portland 
estate having been expressly forbidden by the stipulations 
of the lease. The turn of the street here, which places 
Portland Place and Regent Street on a different line, was 
made to spite Sir James Langham, who had quarrelled with 
Nash as the architect of his house.* The wide and hand- 
some Portland Place (built by the brothers Adam of the 
Adelphi, and named, with Bentinck, Duke, and Duchess 
Streets, from the ground landlord, WilHam, second Duke of 
Portland, and his duchess, Henrietta Cavendish Holies) 
leads to the Regent's Park, having at its extremity a 
Statue of the Duke of Kent by Gahagan. 

The Regent's Park, the largest of the lungs of London, 
occupies 403 acres. It was laid out, during the Regency, 
from designs of John Nash (the architect of Regent Street), 
who designed most of the ugly terraces which surround it, 
and exhibit all the worst follies of the Grecian archi- 
tectural mania which disgraced the beginning of this 

• See Timbs, "Romance of London." 



14© WALKS IN LONDON. 

century. The outer and inner drive are delightful in 
early summer when the thorns and lilacs are in bloom, 
and much more countrified than anything in the other 
parks. 

On the east side of the Park, near Gloucester Gate, is 
St. KatJw'i7ie's Hospital for needy gentlemen and gentle- 
women, removed from the neighuourhood of the Tower, 
when St. Katherine's Docks were erected. There it was 
founded by Matilda of Boulogne, the half-Saxon princess 
who, being niece of Matilda the Good, stole the hearts of 
the English people from the Norman Matilda for her 
husband, King Stephen. Its inmates were perpetually to 
pray for the souls of her two dead eldest children, Baldwin 
and Maud. Eleanor, wife of Edward I., and Philippa, wife 
of Edward III., did much to enrich the hospital. The 
patronage has always rested with the Queens of England, 
and the presentations are usually given to those who have 
been connected with the Court. There are four brethren 
and four sisters, who are supplied here with incomes, 
houses, and small gardens of their own. The modern 
chapel contains some of the fittings of the old one (in 
which Katharine the Fair, widow of Henry V., lay in state 
before her burial at Westminster), the stalls, and a pulpit of 
wood given by Sir Julius C«sar, who was Master of the 
Hospital, and inscribed " Ezra the Scribe stood upon a 
pulpit of wood, which he had made for the preachin. 
Neh. viii. 7." 

Over the altar is a copy from the Nativity of Rubens. A 
noble canopied tomb on the left bears the effigies of John 
Holland, Duke of Exeter, Lord High Admiral in the reign 
of Henry VI., with his first wife, Anne, daughter of Edmond, 



S2\ y OHM'S IVOOD. 1^1 

Earl Stafford, and his sister Constance, Lady Grey de 
Ruthyn.* It was the son of this duke who married the sister 
of Edward IV. 

On the north-west of the Park are the Zoological Gardens^ 
founded in 1826 (admission ix. : on Mondays and holi- 
days 6d.) 

Beyond the Park, on the north, rises the turfy eminence 
called Primrose Hill (206 feet high), at the foot of which 
the Tye Bourne formerly rose, and where the body of Sir 
Edmund Berry Godfrey, murdered near Somerset House, 
was found in a ditch, Oct 17, 1678. When the wind and 
smoke allow, there is a fine view of London from the 
summit of the hill, where there are seats and gravel walks. 

Chalk Farm, on Primrose Hill, commemorated by a 
tavern, was the popular place for duels in the first part of 
the present century. Here (1803) the duel was fought 
between Colonel Montgomery and Captain Macnamara, in 
which the former was killed ; here (1806) Tom Moore and 
Francis Jeffrey were interrupted in that duel of which Lord 
Byron made fun in his *' English Bards and Scotch 
Reviewers ; " and here another lamentable literary duel, 
which grew out of articles in Blackzvood resulted in the 
death of the Editor of the Lo7idon Magazine. The last 
fatal duel at Chalk Farm was that between Lieutenant Monro 
and Colonel Fawcett, July i, 1843. 

On the west of the Park is St./oh?i's Wood, a. vast colony 
of second-rate villas. The district belonged to the Prior of 
St. John's, Clerkenwell, who had his country manor at 
Tollentun (Tollington Road), Highbury. The rural state 

* The Duke's second wife, Anne, daughter of John Montacute, Earl of Salis- 
bury, was buried in the same tomb, but without an effigy 



14a WALKS IN LONDON. 

of the neighbourhood is commemorated in Lisson (formerly 
Listen) Grove, whose public-house is the " Nightingale." 
At St. John's Wood is Lord's Cricket Ground (admission 
6^'., or, when a first-class match is played, ij-.). The great 
gathering here is for the Eton and Harrow match in July. 

Before leaving the Regent's Park we may notice that at 
St. Dunstan's Villa are preserved the giants noticed by 
Cowper, which struck the hours on the old clock of St. 
Dunstan's in Fleet Street (see Ch. III.), and which were 
purchased by the fourth Marquis of Hertford on the 
demolition of the church. 

The land now called the Regent's Park was once Maryle- 
bone Park, a royal hunting ground from the time of 
Elizabeth to the Protectorate, when Cromwell sold the deer 
and cut down the timber. A little to the south of the 
present Park the Marylebone Road now leads towards the 
hideous and populous district of Paddi?igto7i. 1 1 passes the 
Church of St. Mary^ which about 1400 gave the name 
Mary at the Bourne to a village previously called Tyborne, 
from the brook which flowed through it towards Brook 
Street, &c. The interior of the old church is shown in the 
marriage picture of Hogarth's " Rake's Progress." It was 
rebuilt in 1741. The burials here include Gibbs the 
architect, Rysbrach the sculptor, and Allan Ramsay the 
portrait painter. 

Behind the manor-house of Marylebone, which stood on 
the site of Devonshire Mews, Devonshire Street, was the 
bowling-green which was the " Prince's " of the last century. 
Here John Sheffield, Duke of Buckingham, loved to besport 
himself, and led Lady Mary Wortley Montagu to write — 
*• Some Dukes at Marylebone bowl time away." 



ST. PANCRAS IN THE FIELDS. 143 

It was in Marylebone Gardens that Mrs. Fountain, the 
famous beauty of the day, was saluted by Dick Turpin, who 
said, " Don't be alarmed ; you may now boast that you 
have been kissed by Turpin." 

Two miles and a half beyond Paddington, on the Harrow 
Road, is Kensal Green Cejnetery, whither most of the 
funerals, which are so unnecessarily dismal a London sight, 
are wending their way. Here, in the labyrinths of monu- 
ments, we notice those of the Duke of Sussex, 1843 , 
Princess Sophia, 1848; Rev. Sydney Smith, 1841 ; Allan 
Cunningham, 1842 ; Sir Augustus Callcott the artist, 1844, 
John Liston the actor, 1846 ; and Sir Charles Eastlake, 
1865. In the Roman Catholic Cemetery beyond is the 
tomb of Cardinal Wiseman. 

On the east the Marylebone Road falls into the Euston 
Road or New Road, where we may notice the Church of 
St. Pancras^ built by Sir John Soane, who is described by 
Fergusson as '* one of the earliest and most successful 
architects of the revival." In this case, however, his work 
is an utter failure, though it cost ;£76,679. The slight 
portico is quite crushed by a ludicrous tower which presents 
two copies of the Temple of the Winds at Athens, the 
smaller on the top of the larger. The interior is taken 
from the Erechtheion. The side porticos are adorned 
with Canephorae from the Pandroseion. 

On the north of the road leading from King's Cross to 
Kentish Town is the old Church of St. Pancras in the Fields ^^ 
built c. 1 180. The Specuhitn Britannics of 1593 says, 
" Pancras Church standeth all alone, utterly forsaken, old and 

* It is best reached by taming to the left immediately before entering the Mid* 
land Railway Station. 



144 WALKS IN LONDON. 

wetherbeten, which for the antiquitie thereof, is thought not 
to yield to Paul's in London. About this church have bin 
manie buildings, now decaied, leaving poore Pancras without 
companie or comfort." It is understood that this church 
was the last whose bell tolled in England for mass, and 
in which any rites of the Roman Catholic religion were 
celebrated before the Reformation.* The church, which 
was like the humble church of a country village, is now 
hemmed in by railways, and was for the most part rebuilt 
in 1848, though it has still a look of antiquity. Its church- 
yard was deeply interesting, but its interest and its pic- 
luresqueness have been alike annihilated in 1876-77, many 
of its graves being covered up by hideous asphalt walks, and 
as many as five thousand gravestones being torn from their 
graves and either made away with altogether, or set up in 
meaningless rows against the railway wall, their places being 
occupied by silly rockwork. Other monuments, some very 
handsome, have been robbed of all but the flat stones which 
covered them, which have been laid upon the earth. The 
ground itself has been levelled where it was possible, 
instead of having advantage taken of its undulations ; and 
the new walks, instead of being made to wind amongst the 
tombs, are arranged in stupid symmetrical lines, everything 
in the way being sacrificed'and cut away for them. In lact, 
the whole place is desecrated and ruined. 

Entering the church, we may notice on the north wall, 
under the gallery, an unknown monument of Purbeck 
marble, with recesses for brasses. In the north gallery is 
a monument to Thomas Doughty, 1691, first owner of the 
Doughty estate, of which the name became so familiar in 

• Timbs, " Curiosities of London." 



ST. PANCRAS IN THE FIELDS. 145 

the Tichborne trial. On the south wall is a tablet to 
Samuel Cooper, the miniature-painter, the "Apelles of 
England" 1672. Near the chancel door is a monument 
to William Piatt and his wife, 1637, removed from Highgate. 
The neighbourhood of St. Pancras was peopled at the end 
of the last century by noble fugitives from the great French 
Revolution, and for the most part they are buried in this 
churchyard, which is crowded with remarkable memorials of 
the dead. On the right of the church door is the grave- 
stone of William Woollett, the famous engraver (1785), which 
bore the lines — 

*• Here Woollett rests, expecting to be sav'd ; 
He graved well, but is not well engraved :" 

an inscription which is supposed to have led to the after 
erection of a tablet in the cloisters of Westminster Abbey. 
On the north of the churchyard is the tomb of William 
Godwin (1836), described on his tombstone as "Author of 
Political Justice," known chiefly by his novel of " Caleb 
WilHams," " the cream of his mind, while the rest (of his 
works) are the skimmed milk."* With him rest his two 
wives, of whom the first was the notorious Mary Wolstone- 
craft, author of the "Vindication of the Rights of Women," f 
whose daughter Mary promised to become the wife of the 
poet Shelley by her mother's grave. Close by once lay the 
remains of Pasquale Paoli, the Corsican patriot, with a 
eulogistic. Latin epitaph upon his gravestone. 

Amongst the other graves of interest we may notice those 
of the exiled Archbishop Dillon of Narbonne; of Grabe 

• Allan Cunningham, " Hiog. and Crit. Hist." 

t Their remains are said to have been removed to Bournemouth. 

VOI« II. L 



146 WALKS IN LONDON. 

(17 11), trained a Lutheran, but who took orders m the 
Church of England, and espoused the cause of the non- 
jurors; of Jeremy Collier (1726), the famous nonjuring 
bishop, who is simply described in the register as " Jeremiah 
Collier, clerk ;" of Francis Danby the musician, famed *' by 
playful catch, by serious glee;" of Abraham Woodhead, the 
Roman Catholic controversialist (1678), who did not allow 
his name to be aflixed to any of his books — "quos permultos 
et utilissimos et piissimos doctissimosque edidit," erected 
by Cuthbert Constable of Yorkshire, who shared his faith. 
Near Woodhead, to whom he was united in friendship " per 
bonam famam et infamiam," lies Obadiah Walker (1699), 
the ejected Master of University College at Oxford, a 
native of Yorkshire, and also a convert to Roman Catho- 
licism in the reign of Charles II. : his initials appear in 
an anagram. Dr. Bonaventura Giffard, Bishop of Madura 
in partibus infidelium, the second Vicar Apostolic of the 
district of London after England had been partitioned into 
four ecclesiastical districts by Innocent XI., was buried here 
i" ^733- The tomb of Arthur O'Leary (1802), the Irish 
Franciscan monk who wrote against Wesley, who "prayed, 
wept, and felt for all," was erected by Lord Moira. The 
epitaph of Charles Butler (1832), the learned Roman Catholic 
lawyer, who was the antagonist of Southey, is a mere dry 
chronicle of his age and death.* This is the burial-ground 
where Norden said that a corpse lay " as secure against the 
day of resurrection as in stately St. Paul's," yet Parliament 
has lately allowed the engineers of the Midland Railway to 
make a cutting through it, and to build a viaduct over it. 

* For further details see " 1< pitaphs of the Ancient Church and Burial Grounds 
cf St. Pancras," by Frederick Teague Carsick. 



GRAVES OF SOANE AND FLAXMAN. 147 

In a further cemetery adjoining, which belongs to St. 
Giles's in the Fields, is the tomb erected by Sir John Soane, 
the architect and founder of the Soane Museum, to his 
wife, whose loss "left him nothing but the dregs of lingering 
time." He was himself laid beside her in 1837. The 
tomb is a kind of temple, with an odd railing decorated with 
Cupids mourning over their extinguished torches. Near 
the centre of the burial-ground are the massy tombs of 
John Flaxman (1826), his wife, and his sister Mary Anne. 
The great sculptor's epitaph truly tells that " his life was 
a constant preparation for a blessed immortality." 

*' Flaxman was one of the few — the very few — who confer real and 
permanent glory on the country to which they belong. . . . Not even 
in RafFaelle have the gentler feelings and sorrows of human nature 
been traced with more touching pathos than in the various designs and 
models of this estimable man." — Sir Thomas Lawre7ice. 

" The greatest of modern sculptors was our illustrious countryman, 
John Flaxman. Though Canova was his superior in the manual part, 
high finishing, yet in the higher qualities, poetical feeling and inven- 
tion, Flaxman was as superior to Canova as Shakspeare to the 
dramatists of his day." — Sir R. Westtnacott. 

Canova nobly coincided with this opinion when he said — 

" You come to Rome to admire my works, while you possess, in 
your own country, in Flaxman, an artist whose designs excel in classical 
grace all that I am acquainted Nvith in modem art.' 



CHAPTER IV. 
BY OXFORD STREET TO THE CITY. 

RETURNING to Oxford Circus, let us now turn to 
the east down Oxford Street. The second street 
on the left leads into Oxford Market, built for Edward, 
Earl of Oxford, in 173 1. A little behind it, in Margaret 
Street, is the Church of All Saints, a brick building with a 
tall spire, built 1850 — 59, in the Gothic style of 1300, from 
designs of IV. Butierfield. The interior is the richest in 
London, with every adornment of stained windows, encaus- 
tic pavements, and sculptured capitals, the latter being 
real works of art. Very pleasing contrasts of colour are 
obtained in this church by the use of simple materials, — 
brick, chalk, alabaster, granite, and marble — and the effect 
is most delicate and harmonious. In the chancel, the place 
usually occupied by the east window is filled with fresco 
paintings by W, R. Dyce, R.A. 

On the upper floor of a carpenter's shop in 36, Castle 
Street, Oxford Market, was the poverty-stricken home and 
studio of James Barry the artist. 

"Between the great room of the Society of Arts and that carpenter's 
shop, night after night, and morning after morning, for years, plodded 
James Barry. In the golden glow of the summer sunsets, and in the 



WARDOUR STREET. 149 

thick darkness of winter nights, when the glow-worm oil-lamps, faintly 
glimmering here and there, scarcely served to show his way. Through 
hail and rain, heat and cold, mud and snow, the httle shabby, pock- 
marked man went wearily homewards from his daily work. Now 
brooding over colossal figures of heathen divinities, over grace, light, 
and shade ; now surlily growling curses upon the contemptible mean- 
ness which deprived him of both models and materials. At one time 
angry and peevishly fierce, having been insulted by the acting secretary 
of the society ; at another hungry and perplexed, calculating the sura 
he dared venture to expend upon a supper. 

" Picture him to yourself in an old dirty baize coat, which was once 
green, and is now incrusted with paint and dirt, with a scarecrow wig, 
from beneath which creeps a fringe of his own grey hair. . . . Pro- 
tected by his appearance of extreme poverty from the footpads abound- 
ing in ever)' thoroughfare, his dreary walk at last ends at the desolate 
house in Castle Street. The door being opened with some difficulty, 
for the lock is not in order, he gropes his way along the dark passage 
into his painting-room. The lamp outside, penetrating the thick dirt 
on the windows, enables him to find the tinder-box, flint, steel, and 
matches. Patiently he proceeds to strike a shower of sparks over the 
tinder until it ignites, when, carefully puffing to keep it burning, he 
applies the pointed or brimstone end of the flat match to it, and pre- 
sently contrives to light his old tin lamp. Then we see the painting- 
room, dimly but with sufficient clearness to note the two old chairs, 
the deal table, the tapestry-like cobwebs, a huge painting on the 
clumsy easel, old straining frames, dirt-concealed sketches in chaUc and 
oil, a copper-plate printing-press, and, on the walls, the six sketches 
for his £;reat paintings in the Adelphi." — The Builder, Sept. 25, 1875. 

In Wells Street, which opens out of Oxford Street a little 
lower down, is the Church of St. Andrew, a perpendicular 
building, erected 1845 — 7 t)y Dauhs and Hamilton. Rath- 
bone Place, called Rawbone Place in Sutton Nicholl's view 
of 1720, is the great centre for artists' materials. 

On the right of Oxford Street we pass Wardour Street 
(which, with Arundel Street, commemorates Henry, third 
Lord Arundel of Wardour, who died in 1726), celebrated 
for its curiosity-shops, amid which John Bacon, the sculptor, 
had his first studio. Flaxman lived at No. 27 from 17S1 to 



ISO WALKS IN LONDON, 

1787, and, being chosen a parish officer, "used to collect 
the watch-rate, with an ink-bottle at his button-hole."* 
The name of Dean Street and that of Compton Street, which 
crosses it, commemorate Bishop Compton, then Dean of the 
Chapel Royal. The father of Nollekens the sculptor lived 
in Dean Street. No. 43 belonged to Francis Hayman, the 
artist, known by his Illustrations of " Don Quixote." No. 74 
was the house of Sir James Thornhill : it has a noble 
frescoed staircase, on the walls of which Jane Thornhill, 
who eloped with Hogarth in 1729, is said to be represented. 
At No. Zt, died George Harlow the portrait-painter in 
18 19. Compton Street leads into Greek Street^ where 
a rich ironmonger lived in the last century, whose handsome 
son, "Young Buttall," was the "Blue Boy" of Gains- 
borough. 

The district of Soho, to the south of Oxford Street, is 
chiefly due to the enterprise of a builder whose name is 
commemorated in Frith Street. It came into fashion in the 
time of the Stuarts, and failed under the earlier Georges. 
Charles Street leads from Oxford Street into Soho Square^ 
sometimes called King's Square in old times, not from 
Charles II., in whose reign it was built, but from Gregory 
King, its surveyor and architect. The Duke of Mon- 
mouth,! the King's son by Lucy Walters, lived in Monmouth 
House, which was built by Wren, on the south side ot 
the square, and hence he came to appoint So Hoe, a 
name which had belonged to the district around his home 
as early as 1632, for his watchword on the battle-field of 
Sedgemoor. After the Duke of Monmouth's execution the 

• J. T. Smith, " Life of Nollekens." 

♦ Commemorated in A.onmouth Street 



SOHO SQUARE. 151 

house was bought by Lord Bateman (commemorated in 
Bateman's Buildings), of whom Horace Walpole narrates 
that George I. made him an Irish peer to prevent having to 
make him a knight of the Bath, "for," he said, "I can 
make him a lord, but I cannot make him a gentleman." 
Monmouth House was pulled down in 1773. 

On the east of the square, at the corner of Sutton Street, 
was Carlisle House, the town house of the Earls of Carlisle, 
built in the time of James II. It became celebrated at the 
end of the last century for the masked balls and concerts of 
the extraordinary Mrs. Teresa Cornelys, at which, though 
they were far from immaculate, the fashionable world of the 
time loved to congregate.* They were supplanted by 
Almack's, and the greater part of the house was pulled 
down in 1804. The Music Room is now the Roman 
Catholic Church of St. Patrick, Soho, which Nollekens the 
sculptor attended " on fine Sunday mornings." It is 
entered from Sutton Street, and contains a fine Crucifixion 
by Vandyke. 

Sutton Street takes its name from Sutton Court, Chiswick, 
the country house of the Falconbergs, who resided in 
Falconberg House close by (commemorated in Falconberg 
Mews). Here lived Mary Cromwell, Lady Falconberg, 
the Protector's daughter, who died March 14, 1712, leaving 
the house and all else that she could away from her 
husband's family. In the same house the shipwrecked 
remains of Sir Cloudesley Shovel lay in state before they 
were buried in Westminster Abbey. As the "White 
House," its parties were afterwards of equal reputation, but 

* Mrs. Cornelys, afterwards reduced to sell asses' milk in Knightsbridge, died 
in the Fleet Prison in 1797. 



152 WALKS IN LONDON. 

more disreputable than those of Mrs. Cornelys. The 
house still exists (Nos. 20 and 21) as the offices of Messrs. 
Crosse and Blackwell, and is the best specimen of domestic 
architecture remaining in Soho. One of the rooms has a 
grand chimney-piece and beautiful ceiling. The house next 
door, inhabited in turn by a Duke of Argyle, an Earl of 
Bedford, and Speaker Onslow, has ceilings by Angelica 
Kauffinann and Biagio Rebecca. In the House of Charity 
at the corner of Greek Street are remains of the fine old 
mansion once occupied by Alderman Beckford. No. 32, 
now the Dental Hospital, was the house of Sir Joseph 
Banks, the great naturalist, who lived there with his eccentric 
sister, celebrated for her three riding-habits — " Hightum, 
Tightum, and Scrub." 

In the middle of the square stood till lately a much- 
injured statue, concerning which opinions differed as to 
whether it represented Charles II. or the Duke of 
Monmouth. Surrounded by figures emblematical of the 
Thames, Trent, Humber, and Severn, it formed the centre 
of a handsome fountain : now it is removed to a garden at 
Harrow Weald. Nollekens narrates that he " often stood 
for hours together to see the water run out of the jugs of the 
old river gods, but the water never would run out of their 
jugs, but when the windmill was going round at the top cf 
Rathbone Place." Evelyn tells us that he went in 1690, 
with his family, " to winter in Soho, in the great square," 
and it will be remembered that Sir Roger de Coverley is 
represented as residing in Soho Square "when he is in 
town." It continued to be one of the most fashionable 
parts of London till far into the last century. Nollekens 
the sculptor (born 1737) records that when he was a little 



so HO SQUARE. 153 

boy, and living in Dean Street, " there were no fewer than 
four ambassadors in Soho Square, and at that time it was 
the most fashionable place for the nobility." 

The whole district of Soho, especially the southern 
portion of it, has now a French aspect, from the number of 
French refugees who have settled there at different times, 
especially the Huguenots after the Revocation of the Edict 
of Nantes, in 1685, the emigres of the Reign of Terror in 
1789, and the Communists of 187 1. Maitland, writing in 
the beginning of the last century, says, '* Many parts of this 
parish so abound with French, that it is an easy matter for 
a stranger to imagine himself in France." Many are the 
continental conspiracies which have been hatched in Soho. 
An old pillared building, which stood on the site of the 
chaj^el in Moor Street, was called the " French Change." 
There are French schools, French names over many of the 
shops, French restaurants with diners d la carte^ and the 
organ-grinders of Soho find that the Marseillaise is the 
most lucrative tune to play. Lately the London City 
Mission has established a Salon des Etratigers in Greek 
Street, where counsel is given to the friendless and 
distressed. 

Returning to Oxford Street, Crown Street, on the right 
(so called from the sign of the " Rose and Crown " at 
the coiner of Rose Street and Crown Street), was formerly 
"Hog Lane," the scene of Hogarth's "Noon." The 
Church of St. Mary the Virgin has usurped the site of a 
historic building which was the first Greek Church in 
London, having been consecrated in 1677, "the most 
serene Charles IL being king," as was told in an inscription 
over the door. It was under the jurisdiction of the Greek 



154 IVALKS IN LONDON, 

Archbishop of Samos, and was dedicated to the Virgin 
because of her famous grotto in that island. In 1818 the 
church was sold by the Greeks, and it was used by French 
Protestant refugees till 1822. Some almshouses near this 
were founded by Nell Gwynne. 

High Street now leads into the poverty-stricken district 
of St. Giles. It is noteworthy that places dedicated to 
this saint, " abbot and martyr," were almost always outside 
some great town. This was because St. Giles (St. Egidius) 
was the patron saint of lepers, and where a place was called 
by his name a lazar-house always existed. From the 
reign of Edward III. to that of Henry VIII. "the pleasant 
village of St. Giles" consisted of only a few cottages 
grouped around an old stone cross, with some shops whose 
owners' names are preserved in the hospital grants as 
Gervase le Lyngedrap (linendraper), and Reginald le 
Tailleur, &c. A hospital for lepers was built here by 
Matilda, wife of Henry I., about 11 18, being attached to a 
larger house of the kind at Burton Lazars in Leicestershire. 
It was in front of this hospital that the Lollard conspirators 
met under Sir John Oldcastle in 14 13, and on the same 
spot he was roasted in chains over a slow fire. 

" 1416. Thys yere the xiij day of December S'» John Oldecastell 
Knyghte was drawne from the tower of London unto sent Gylles in 
the felde and there was hongyd and brent." — Chronicle of the Grey 
Friars of London, 

The Hospital was dissolved at the Reformation, and the 
property granted to John Dudley, Viscount Lisle (whence 
Dudley Street), but it was not till the beginning of the 
seventeenth century that the "verie pleasant village" of 
St. Giles began to be built over or connected with London. 



ST, GILES IN THE FIELDS, 155 

The vine garden of the Hospital is now known as Vinegar 
Yard! 

The Hospital and its country surroundings are com- 
memorated in the name of the Church of " St. Giles in the 
Fields^' built by Henry Flitcroft, 1730 — 34, with a very hand- 
some spire, on the site of a brick church constructed by 
Laud in 1623. Close to the north door, removed from the 
chancel and preserved from the old church on account of 
her mother's benefactions to the parish, is the tomb, with a 
recumbent figure, of Lady Alice Kniveton. She was 
daughter of Alice Leigh, who married and was repudiated 
by Sir Robert Dudley (son of Elizabeth's Earl of Leicester), 
and was created Duchess of Dudley by Charles I., a title 
which was confirmed by Charles II. The words of her 
daughter's epitaph do not flatter her when they say that 
'* she lived and died worthy of that honour ; " she resided 
close by in that house of Lord Lisle which supplanted the 
old hospital, and is buried at Stoneleigh. "Under ye 
pewes in ye south aisle of Saint Giles' church," says Aubrey, 
was buried, in 1678, Andrew Marvel the poet, whose works 
have been compared I)v his admirers to those of Milton. 

A lich-gate of 165C, bearing a curious carving in oak 
representing the Resurrection, forms the western approach 
to the churchyard, which contains many interesting monu- 
ments. Against the south wall of the church is a tomb like 
a Roman altar, erected at the expense of Inigo Jones to 
" George Chapman, Poeta," the translator of the *' Iliad " 
and of Hesiod's " Works and Days." Pope speaks of " the 
daring, fiery spirit that animates his translation, which is 
something hke what one might imagine Homer himself to 
have written before he arrived at years of discretion." 



156 WALKS IN LONDON, 

Warton says that his eighteen plays, *' though now forgotten, 
must have contributed in no considerable degree to enrich 
and advance the English stage." Ben Jonson writes — 

*♦ Whose work could this be, Chapman, to refine 
Old Hesiod's lore, and give it thus, but thine 
"Who hadst before wrought in rich Homer's mine ? 

What treasure hast thou brought us, and what store 
Still, still thou dost arrive with at our shore, 
To make thy honour and our wealth the more ? 

If all the vulgar tongues that speak this day 
Were asked of thy discoveries, they must say, 
To the Greek coast thine only knew the way. 

Such passage hast thou found, such returns mad^ 
As now of aU men it is called the trade ; 
And who make thither else, rob or invade." 

Near the east end of the church is the conspicuous tomb 
of Richard Penderell—" Trusty Richard" (1666), "the 
preserver of the life of King Charles II." after his escape 
from Worcester fight. It bears the lines — * 

" Hold, passenger, here's shrouded in his hearse, 
Unparallel'd Pendrill through the imiverse ; 
Like whom the Eastern star from heaven gave light 
To three lost kings, so he in such dark night 
To Britain's Monarch, toss'd by adverse war^ 
On earth appear'd, a second Eastern star; 
A pole, a stem in her rebellious main, 
A pilot to her royal sovereign. 
Now to triumph in heaven's eternal sphere 
He's hence advanced for his just steerage here; 
Whilst Albion's chronicles with matchless fame 
Embalm the story of great Pendrill's name." 

On the edge of the churchyard towards Broad Street, 
under a stone marked by a coronet, the remains of James 
Ratcliffe, Earl of Dervventwater, rested before they were 



i 



ST. GILES IN THE FIELDS, 157 

removed to Dilston, whence, in 1874, they were taken to 
Thorndon. Other eminent persons buried in this church- 
yard are Lord Herbert of Cherbury, 1648 ; Shirley the 
dramatist, 1666; Michael Mohun the actor, 1684; the 
Countess of Shrewsbury, who is described by Walpole as 
holding the horse of her lover, George Villiers, Duke of 
Buckingham, while he killed her husband in a duel, 1702 ; 
Roger le Strange the politician, 1704; and Oliver Plunkett, 
the Archbishop of Armagh, who was executed at Tyburn 
for high treason in 1681, and whose body was afterwards 
removed to Landsprung in Germany. 

It was first in front of the hospital, afterwards at an inn 
close by — " The Bow," in later times " The Angel '* 
(destroyed in 1873) — that, by old custom, prisoners on 
their way to execution at Tyburn were presented with 
" the parting-cup " — a bowl of ale (whence " Bowl Alley," 
on the south of High Street), their last mortal sustenance ; 
and that Jack Sheppard, having supped the wine, smiled, 
and said, " Give the remainder to Jonathan Wild." 



"This custom gave a moral taint to St. Giles's, and made it a retreat 
for noisome and squalid outcasts. The Puritans made stout efforts to 
reform its morals ; and, as the parish books attest, ' oppressed tipplers' 
were fined for drinking on the Lord's-day, and vintners for permitting 
them ; fines were levied for swearing oaths, travel-ling and brewing on 
a fast day, &c. Again, St. Giles's was a refuge for the persecuted 
tipplers and ragamuffins of London in those days ; and its black- 
guardism was increased by harsh treatment. It next became the abode 
of hosts of disaffected foreigners, chiefly Frenchmen, of whom a club 
was held in Seven Dials. Smollett speaks, in 1740, of two tatterde- 
malions from the purlieus of St. Giles's, and between them both there 
was but one shirt and a pair of breeches. Hogarth painted his 
moralities from St, Giles's : his ' Gin Lane ' has for its background St. 
George's Church, Bloomsbury, date 1751; *when,' says Hogarth, 
* these two prints (" Gin Lane " and " Beer Street ") were designed aj)«1 



158 WALKS IN LONDON, 

engraved, the dreadful consequences of gin-drinking appeared in every 
"house in Gin-lane ; every circumstance of its horrid effects is brought 
into view m terroretJt — not a house in tolerable condition but the pawn- 
"broker's and the gin-shop — the coffin-makers in the distance.' Again 
the scene of Hogarth's ' Harlot's Progress ' is in Drury Lane ; Tom 
Nero, in his • Four Stages of Cruelty,' is a St. Giles's charity-boy ; and 
in a night cellar here the 'Idle Apprentice ' is taken up for murder." — 
limbs. Curiosities of London, 

From an early date St. Giles's seems to have had a bad 
reputation. Even the little village had its cage, watch- 
house, round-house, pest-house, stocks, gallows, and whip- 
ping-post. Its pound, only cleared away in 1765, was a 
landmark — 

** At Newgate steps Jack Chance was found, 
And bred up near St. Giles's pound."* 

Under the Tudors the character of St. Giles's was changed 
from a country village to that of one of the poorest parishes 
in London. " A cellar in St. Giles's " has long been an 
epithet to denote the lowest grade of poverty. In 1665, 
during the Great Plague, 3,216 persons died in St. Giles's 
alone. But the dense mass of houses called the " Rookery," 
which was once the worst part of the parish, has been 
cleared away in the formation of New Oxford Street, and 
the condition of the whole neighbourhood is improving, 
though it still continues one of the poorest in London. 
Much harm has been done by the ill-judged benevolence of 
writers of little religious books, and the exaggerated pictures 
they have drawn of the poverty of this district, resulting in 
unnecessarily large subscriptions, which destroy the habit of 
self-dependence amongst the inhabitants. There is seldom 
absolute destitution except amongst those who, having 

• See The Builder, Oct. 4, 1873. 



SEVEN DIALS. 15Q 

fallen from better days, have never been able to acquire the 
habit of work. Old-clothes-men, bird-fanciers, bird-cage 
makers, and ballad-mongers drive the most flourishing 
trades. Apropos of the latter, Walford's *' Old and New 
London " gives an amusing account of the origin of the 
expression " Catchpenny," in the displeasure of the people 
at being taken in by the ingenuity of James Catnach, a 
popular ballad printer in Monmouth Court, who, after the 
murder of Weare by Thurtell, obtained a great sale for a 
broadside, ^yhich he headed, "WE ARE ALIVE AGAIN," 
which the public read as WEARE. Of the ballads which 
told the story of Rush and the Mannings, no less than 
2,500,000 copies were sold. 

A number of wretched streets run southwards from High 
Street and Broad Street. Dickens* calls Dudley Street, 
formerly Monmouth Street, " the burial-place of the 
fashions," from its old-clothes shops. St. Andrew's Street 
leads (at the junction of St. Martin's Lane and Long Acre) 
to the famous Seven Dials, so called because, at the con- 
junction of seven streets, there formerly stood here a pillar 
bearing a dial with seven faces. Evelyn says — 

** I went to see the building near St. Giles's, where seven streets 
made a star, from a Doric pillar placed in the centre of a circular area, 
said to be built by Mr. Neale, introducer of the late lotteries, in imi- 
tation of those at Venice." — Diary. 

" Where famed St. Giles's ancient limits spread, 
An in-rail'd column nears its lofty head ; 
Here to seven streets seven dials count their day, 
And from each other catch the circling ray." 

Gay. Trivia, bk. ii. 

The pillar was removed in 1773, and, long afterwards, 

• Sketches by Boz 



l6o WALKS IN LONDON. 

being surmounted with a ducal coronet, was set up on 
Weybridge Green in memory of the Duchess of York, who 
died at Oatlands in 1820. 

Returning to Broad Street, one of the next openings on 
the right is Endell Street. Some way down it (on the right, 
under No. 3) was a curious hath, surrounded by Dutch 
tiles and supplied by an abundant mineral spring. It was 
called Queen Anne's Bath, and small rooms were shown 
as her toilette and dressing-room, though there was no 
proof of its having been used by her. About 1868 the 
springs overflowed so much, that it was found necessary to 
cut them off, and the bath has now been filled up. Only 
its marble paving slabs remain. 

Then Drury Lane opens on the right. The first turning 
on the left of it is Coal Yard, where Nell Gwynne was born. 
At the end of this street stood the Round House, where 
Jack Sheppard was imprisoned at night, and found to have 
escaped in the morning. The next turn out of Drury 
Lane, Charles Street, was formerly Lewknor's Lane (from 
Sir Lewis Lewknor, the proprietor). Its morality is alluded 
to by Butler — 

" The nymphs of chaste Diana's train, 
The same with those of Lewknor's lane." 

It was close to this that the Great Plague of 1665 began. 

Opposite to the entrance of High Street, Tottenham Court 
Road forms a main artery, running north-west towards 
Hampstead. It derives its name from the manor of 
Tottenham Court, which belonged to the Chapter of St. 
Paul's, whose pleasant fields were a favourite summer- 
evening resort of ancient Londoners. 



WHITEFIELD'S TABERNACLE. l6l 

**And Hogsdone, Islington, and Tothnam Court, 
For cakes and creame, had then no small resort." 

George Wither y 1628. 

Tottenham Court Manor House was afterwards the 
** Adam and Eve " public-house, surrounded by gardens, in 
front of which Hogarth has laid the scene of his " March 
to Finchley." The gardens existed till the end of the last 

century. 

** When the sweet-breathing spring unfolds the bnds, 
Love flies the dusty town for shady woods. 
Then Tottenham-fields with roving beauty swarm, 
And Hampstead balls the city virgins warm." 

Gay to Pulteney, 

Tottenham Court Road is famous for its furniture shops. 
On the right is Meux's Brewery. On the left is Whitefield's 
Tabernacle,^ built by George Whitefield in 1756, when it 
became known as ** Whitefield's Soul Trap ; " an octangular 
front, which was a later addition due to the liberality of 
Queen Caroline, being called the " Oven." Whitefield's 
pulpit is preserved, and is that in which he preached his 
last sermon (Sept. 2, 1769) before leaving for America, 
where he died at Boston in 1770. Wesley used it, in 
accordance with Whitefield's dying desire, when he preached 
his funeral sermon. Here, also. Dr. Henry Peckwell 
preached his own funeral sermon on Heb. xiii. 7, 8, 
after he knew that mortification had set in from the prick 
of a needle, of which he died a few days after. Whitefield 
is commemorated here on the monument of his wife. His 
portrait is in the vestry, with those of all his successors in 
the ministry of this chapel. 

• The name of Tabernacle was first applied to the churches of boards hastily 
raised after the Great i ire. 

VOL. II. M 



l62 WALKS IN LONDON. 

"Neither energy, nor eloquence, nor histrionic talents, nor any artl* 
fices of style, nor the most genuine sincerity and self-devotedness, 
nor all these united, would have enabled Whitefield to mould the reli- 
gious character of millions in his own and future generations. The 
secret lies deeper, though not very deep. It consisted in the nature of 
the theology he taught — in its perfect simplicity and universal applica- 
tion. His thirty or forty thousand sermons were but so many varia- 
tions on two key-notes. Man is guilty and must obtain forgiveness ; 
he is immortal, and must ripen here for endless weal or woe hereafter. 
Expanded into innumerable forms, these two cardinal principles were 
ever in his heart and on his tongue." — Sir Jatnes Stephen. The 
Evangelical Succession. 

A tablet under the north gallery, to John Bacon, R.A., 
the sculptor of numerous monuments in St. Paul's and else- 
where in London, has, from his own hand, the epitaph — 
" What I was as an artist seemed to me of some importance 
while I lived ; but what I really was as a Believer in Christ 
Jesus is the only thing of importance to me now." 

" The site of Whitefield's new chapel was surrounded by fields and 
gardens. On the north side of it there were but two houses. The 
next after them, half a mile further, was the ' Adam and Eve ' public- 
house ; and thence, to Hampstead, there were only the inns of ' Mother 
Red Cap ' and * Black Cap.' The chapel, when first erected, was 
seventy feet square within the walls. Two years after it was opened, 
twelve almshouses and a minister's house were added. About a year 
after that, the chapel was found to be too small, and it was enlarged to 
its present dimensions of a hundred and twenty-seven feet long and 
seventy feet broad, with a dome of a hundred and fourteen feet in 
height. Beneath it were vaults for the burial of the dead ; and in 
which Whitefield intended that himself and his friends, John and 
Charles Wesley, should be interred. ' I have prepared a vault in this 
chapel,' Whitefield used to say to his somewhat bigoted congregation, 
' where I intend to be buried, and Messrs. John and Charles Wesley 
shall also be buried there. We will all lie together. You will not 
let them enter your chapel while they are alive. They can do you no 
harm when they are dead.' The lease of the ground was granted to 
Wliitefield by General George Fitzroy, and, on its expiration in 1 828, 
the freehold was purchased for ^19,000. The foundation-stone of the 
chapel was laid in the beginning of June, 1756. It was opened fc» 



I 



BLOOMSBURY. 163 

divine worship on November 7, 1756, when Wliitefield selected, as his 
text, the words, ' Other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, 
which is Jesus Christ ' (i Cor. iii. ii). 

I Tottenham Court Chapel has a history well worthy of being written. 
[From this venerable sanctuary sprang separate congregations in 6hep- 
Iherd's Market, Kentish Town, Paddington, Tonbridge Chapel, Robert 
jStreet, Crown Street, and Craven Chapel. Much might also be said of 
/the distinguished preachers who, in olden days, occupied its pulpit : Dr. 
Peckwell; De Courcy ; Berridge ; Walter Shirley ; Piercy, Chaplain to 
General Washington ; Rowland Hill ; Torial Joss ; West ; Kinsman ; 
Beck ; Medley ; Edward Parsons ; Matthew Wilks ; Joel Knight ; 
John Hyatt, and many others. Whitefield's Tabernacle in Moorfields has 
been demolished, and a Gothic church erected on its site. Whitefield's 
Tottenham Court Chapel is now his only erection in the great metro- 
polis ; and long may it stand as a grand old monument, in memory of 
the man who founded it ! Thousands have been converted within its 
walls, and never was it more greatly needed than at the present day." 
— Tyerman's Life of the Rev. G. Whitefield. 1877. 

Tottenham Court Road leads into the Hampstead Road, 
on which the name of Bellsize Park records the site of 
the quaint old mansion called Bellsize House, which 
was popular as a tea-garden and place of fashionable 
resort in the early part of the last century, though, as late 
as 1720, its advertisements set forth, "For the security ot 
the guests there are twelve stout fellows, completely armed, 
to patrol between London and Bellsize, to prevent the 
insults of highwaymen and footpads that may infest the 
roads." 

Beyond this, the district to the north of Oxford Street 
is called Bloomsbury, the name being a corruption of 
Blemundsbury, the manor of the De Blemontes, Blemunds, 
or Blemmots, in the reigns of Henry III. and Edward I.* 

* I he manors of ^ t. Giles and Bloomsbury were divided by Blemund's Dyke, 
afterwards I'loomsbury Great Ditch. The manor-house of the Blemunds stood 
on the site of J^.edford Place, and is described in the St. Giles's Hospital grant 
as " the capital messuage ofWilliam Blemund." 



I64 WALKS IN LONDON, 

When the changeable tide of fashion in the last century 
flowed north from the neighbourhood of St. Clement 
Danes and Whitehall, it settled with a deceptive grasp, 
which seemed likely to be permanent, on the estate of the 
Duke of Bedford. Everything here commemorates the 
glories of that great ducal family. Bloomsbury Street and 
Square, Chenies Street, Francis Street, Tavistock Square, 
Russell Square, Bedford Square, and many places less im- 
portant, have their names and titles, Rowland Street and 
Streatham Street record the marriage of the second duke 
with the daughter of John Rowland of Streatham in 1696. 
Gower Street and Keppel Street, built 1778 — 86, comme- 
morate his son, who was made Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland 
in 1756 ; and two other marriages of the family have left, 
their mark in Torrington Square and Gordon Square. 

On the left of Oxford Street, Bloomsbury Street now 
leads into Bedford Square, decorated with a statue of 
Francis, Duke of Bedford, by Westmacott. No. 6 was the 
residence of Lord Eldon from 1809 to 181 5, and it was 
here that the Prince Regent, by his insistance at the Chan- 
cellor's sick-bed, wrung from him the appointment to the 
vacant post of Master in Chancery for his friend Jekyll the 
wit. 

In Gower Street, which leads north from Bedford 
Square, is University College, built by Wilkins, 1827-28. 
Under the central cupola is the Flax7?ian Hall, containing 
models of the principal works of John Flaxman, presented 
by his sister-in-law. Miss Denman. 

On the east of Bedford Square rose the magnificent 
Montague House. Writing of the year 1685, Macaulay 
says — 



THE BRITISH MUSEUM. 165 

" A Kttle way from Holbom, and on the verge of pastures and corn- 
fields, rose two celebrated palaces, each with an ample garden. One 
of them, then called Southampton House, and subsequently Bedford 
House, was removed early m the present century to make room for a 
new city which now covers, with its squares, streets, and churches, a 
vast area renowned in the seventeenth century for peaches and snipes. 
The other, known as Montague House, celebrated for its furniture and 
frescoes, was, a few months after the death of King Charles II., burned 
to the ground, and was speedily succeeded by a more magnificent 
Montague House, which, having long been the repository of such 
various and precious treasures of art, science, and learning as were 
scarce ever before assembled under a single roof, has since given place 
to an edifice more magnificent still." — Hist, of England, 

Museum Street leads from Oxford Street to the British 
Museum, which was built on the site of Montague House, 
1823 — 1847, from designs of Sir Robert Smirke, continued 
under his brother Sydney. Otherwise handsome, it is 
dwarfed and spoilt by having no suitable base. Its collec- 
tions originated in the purchase of those of Sir Hans Sloane 
in 1753. The most important gifts have been those of the 
Royal Library by George II., and of George III.'s library 
by George IV. ; the most important purchases those of Sir 
William Hamilton's collections, the Townley, Phigalian, and 
Elgin Marbles, Dr. Burney's MSS., and the Lansdowne and 
Arundel MSS. 

The British Museum is open to the Public (Free admission) 

From 10 to 4. From 10 to 5 From 10 to 6. 

Mondays. ( J^J^^^' ^^'f> ^^y' 

Wednesdays. ) If''''^'^^ ;^P"^' , i"f^' 

Fridays. ) November, September, July, 

' December, October, August. 

Saturdays, from 12 till the hour of closing throughout the yeai. 
except as stated below. 

Evenings of Monday and Saturday till 8 o'clock, from May 8 to the 
middle of August. 

Closed — January I to 7, May I to 7, September I to 7 inclusive; and 
on Sundays, Christmas Day, Ash Wednesday, and Good Friday. 



166 WALKS IN LONDON, 

In the Hall are three statues — 

Hon. Mrs. Seymour Darner, the sculptress, by hersdfc 

Shakspeare by Rouhiliac. 

Sir Joseph Banks by Chantrey. 

Turning to the left, we enter the Roman Gallery^ lined on 

the left by Anglo-Roman antiquities, and on the right by 

Roman statues and busts. In the centre is — 

*43. ^ Barbarian — a noble haughty bust, the deeply overshadowing 
hair descending close to the eyebrows. Found in the Forum of Trajan, 
and probably representing the German chieftain Arminius, conquered 
by Germanicus. 

Deserving notice on the right are — 

103. Head oi Minerva — found in the Temple of Apollo at Cyrene. 

37. Bust of Caracalla—ioym'\ in Rome at the Quattro Fontane. 

30. Bust of Lucius Verus — from the Mattel Collection. 

29. Bust of Lucius ^lius, the colleague of M. Aurelius. 

27. Bust of Marcus Aurelius — from Cyrene. 

26. Curious Bust of Marcus Aurelius as one of the Fratres Arvales 
— from the Mattel Collection. 

24. Bust of Antoninus Pius — from Cyrene. 

19. Statue of Hadrian. 

* 20. Bust of Antinous — found near the Villa Pamfili at Rome. 

15. Bust of Trajan — found in the Roman Campagna. 

4. Bust of Augustus. 

3. Beautiful Head of the young Augustus — from the Castellani 
Collection. 

2. Head of Julius Caesar. 

I. Head supposed to represent Cnseus L.L. MarceUinus, PropraetoJ 
of Cyrene — found in the Temple of ApoUo at Cyrene. 

In the First Grceco-Roman Room we may notice — 

109. Satyr with the Infant Bacchus — from the Famese Collection. 

1 10. Bacchus— from the Temple of Bacchus at Cyrene. 

111. Bust of Juno— found at Rome. 

112. Statueof Diana— found at La Storta, much restored. 

114. Apollo Citharoedus — from his temple at Cyrene. 

115. Bust of Apollo— from the Albani Collection. 



THE GRjECO-ROMAN ROOMS. ib; 

Il6. Statue of Venus preparing for the bath — given by William IV 

* 117. Bust of Homer — in old age and blind. From Baiae. 

118. The Sat)T called the " Rondinini Faun" — greatly restored. 
P'rom the Palazzo Rondinini at Rome. 

126. Canephora — found on the Via Appia. 

128. Bust of Minerva — from the Villa Casali at Rome. Much 
restored, and the bronze helmet and breast modem. 

The Second Graco- Roman Room contains — 

(Left) 139. A Male Head from the Villa of Hadrian called 
Pantanella. 

* 136. The Townley Venus — a beautiful statue, found in the Baths 
of Claudius at Ostia. 

* (Right) 135. The Discobolus, or Quoit-thrower — an early copy of 
the famous bronze statue by Myron, found in the Villa Adriana at 
Tivoli. 

* 138. A noble Head of Apollo — from the Giustiniani Collection. 

The Third Grceco-Roman Room contains, beginning on 
the right wall — 

144. Relief of Hercules seizing the Keryneian Stag. 

145. Cupid bending his Bow. 

146. A beautiful statuette ot Cupid bending a Bow — found 1776 at 
Castello di Guido (Lorium). It has no restorations. 

147. Relief of a Youth holding a. Horse— from Hadrian's Villa at 
Tivoli. 

* 149. Beautiful Female Bust resting on the calyx of a flower. This 
was formerly called " Clytie," and was the most cherished possession of 
Mr. Townley, who escaped with it in his arms when he was expecting 
his house to be sacked and burnt during the Gordon riots. 

151. A noble Heroic Bust — restored by Flaxman. From the collec- 
tion of Mr. Rogers. 

154. Beautiful Head of a Youth— found near Rome. 

155. Statue of Thalia (the Muse of Comedy) crowned with ivy — 
from Ostia. 

157. Relief of a Female carried off by a Centaur — from the Villa 
Verospi. 

158. Noble Head of a Muse— from Frascati. 

* 159. A very curious Relief representing the Apotheosis of Homer, 
found at Bo\allae in the seventeenth century, and probably executed in 
the time of the Emperor Tiberius. 



i68 WALKS IN LONDON, 

r6o. Female Head in a Phrygian Hood — from the Villa Montalto 
at Rome. 

l6i. Iconic Bust. 

163. Mithras sacnficing a Bull — much restored. The worship of 
Mithras, the Persian Sun-god, was introduced under the Empire. He 
is represented here, in a Persian cap and tunic, pressing a bull to the 
ground, and stabbing him with a dagger. A dog and serpent lick 
the blood which trickles from the wound, and a scorpion fastens on 
the bull beneath. 

165. Actaeon devoured by his Hounds on Mount Cith^eron — from 
Civita Lavinia. 

166. Female Head — from the Pourtales Collection. 
* 171. The Famese Mercury —purchased 1865. 

176. Relief of the Visit of Bacchus to Icarius, whom he instructed 
in the art of making wine — from the collection of Sixtus V. in the 
Villa Montalto. 

178, Recumbent Satyr. 

179. A beautiful Bacchic Relief— from Gabii. 

188. Youthful Satyr — from the Palazzo Maccarani at Rome. 

184. Youthful Satyr— from Antium. 

185. Venus — from Ostia. 

186. Remains of a group of two Boys fighting over a game of 
Astragali (knuckle-bones) — from the Baths of Titus at Rome. 

189. Bacchus, and his beloved Ampelus, who is being transformed 
into a vine, to which his affection was thenceforth transferred — a very 
beautiful group found at La Storta, on the Via Cassia. 

190. Paniskos, or Youthful Pan. The name of the artist, Marcus 
Cossutius Cerdo, is inscribed. 

196. A Nymph of Diana seated on the ground. 
199. Head of the Young Hercules — from Genzano. 
204. Head of the Young Hercules — from the Barberini Collection. 
In this room is placed provisionally a fine Etruscan sarcophagus, 
with two reclining figures — from Cervetri. 



Behind the statue of Mercury a staircase leads to the 
Grceco-Roman Baseine?tt, where we may notice — 

54. Two Greyhounds — from Monte Cagnolo. A beautiful group. 

56. Mithraic Group, with an inscription which says, " AJcimus, the 
slave bailiff of Titus Claudius Livianus, dedicates this to the Sun-god, 
Mithras, in fulfilment of a vow." 



LYCIAN SALOON, MAUSOLEUM ROOM. 169 

From the Third Grseco- Roman Room we enter the Lycian 
Saloon, filled with sculptures and casts of sculptures, 
brought 1 84 1 — 44 by Sir Charles Fellows from the ruins 
of Xanthus, the most important city of Lycia, which was 
twice destroyed — first in the reign of Cyrus, when it was 
besieged by Harpagus with a Persian army, and the 
Xanthians buried themselves and all their possessions 
beneath the ruins of their city; and, secondly, by the army 
of Brutus, who took the city by stratagem, when the inha- 
bitants again destroyed themselves, with their wives and 
children. On the right of the entrance of the room is a 
model of the principal temple at Xanthus, to which most of 
the sculptures in this room (No. 34 — 140) belong, and 
where they are marked at the appropriate points in the 
model. Three tombs from Xanthus, or portions of them, 
are likewise preserved here. 

Left. The Harpy Tomb — supposed to have been raised for a 
Prince of Lycia, who claimed descent from the mythical hero Pandarus. 
In its relief the Harpies are represented carrying oft the daughters of 
Pandarus. 

The House Tomb. On the roof is a chariot with four horses, and 
beneath it a relief of Bellerophon attacking the Chimaera. 

Right. Tomb of the Satrap Piafa, with a roof and reliefs. 

A Pillar covered with inscriptions in the ancient Lycian language. 

The Mausolmm Room contains the remains of the famous 
Mausoleum of Halicarnassus, on the coast of Asia Minor, 
one of the "Seven Wonders of the World," erected B.C. 352 
by Artemisia, Princess of Caria, who during her short reign 
destroyed the fleet of Rhodes, and became mistress of the 
island. She is chiefly celebrated, however, for her violent 
grief for the loss of her husband (who was also her brother), 
whose ashes she mixed daily with her drink, of whom she 



170 WALKS IN LONDON, 

induced the most eminent Greek rhetoricians to proclaim 
the praises, and for whose loss she died in two years of a 
broken heart, having erected to his memory a mausoleum 
which surpassed in splendour all the monuments of the 
ancient world. It was an edifice like an Ionic temple, raised 
on a lofty basement, and surmounted by a pyramid, with a 
chariot group on the summit. The whole was of Parian 
marble. Its architects were Satyros and Pythios. Four great 
sculptors — Scopas, Leochares, Bryaxis, and Timotheos — 
were employed on its decorations ; a fifth, probably Pythios, 
made the crowning chariot group. From its beauty the 
name of mausoleum came to be applied to all similar monu- 
ments. The Mausoleum of Halicarnassus is mentioned by 
Vitruvius, Pliny, and Lucian, and is alluded to as a still- 
existing wonder by Eustathius, who wrote in the twelfth 
century. After this it ceased to excite attention till, in 
1846, thirteen sculptured slabs were sent to England by 
Lord Stratford de Redcliffe from the Castle of Budrum, 
which had been built by the Knights of St. John in the ruins 
of Halicarnassus. In 1855 Mr. C. J. Newton, Keeper of 
ihe Greek and Roman antiquities of the British Museum, 
visited Budrum, and his discovery of the colossal lions 
inserted in the walls of the castle and other evident remains 
of the Mausoleum led the Government, in Nov. 1856, to 
send out the steam corvette Gorgon^ with workmen, and a 
firman permitting them to excavate. 

The most remarkable of the remains brought over are the 
Lions, guardians of the tomb, with the expression varied in 
each ; and the colossal statue believed to represent the 
despotic and unscrupulous satrap Mausolus himself (b.c. 
377 — 353), which was found broken into sixty -five frag- 



THE ELGIN MARBLES. 171 

ments, but is now nearly complete, wanting only the arms 
and one foot. 

"The aspect of the fignre accords well with the description which 
Mausolus is made to give of himself in Lucian's Dialogue. * I was,' 
he says, addressing Diogenes, * a tall, handsome man, and formidable 
in war.* " — C. J. Newton. 

A female figure either represents the goddess who acted 
as charioteer to Mausolus, or Artemisia herself when 
deified. 

" In this statue and that of Mausolus great skill has been shown in 
the treatment of the drapery. Each fold is traced home to its origin, 
and wrought to its full depth ; a master hand has passed over the whola 
surface, leaving no sign of that slurred and careless treatment which 
characterizes the meretricious art of a later period. One foot of this 
statue has been preserved, and is an exquisite specimen of sculpture, 
the more precious because we possess so few examples of extremities 
finished by the hands of the great masters of the earlier Greek schools." 
—C. J. Newton. 

In this room is placed, provisionally, a noble Head of 
^-Esculapius from the Isle of Melos. 

The Elgin Room is almost entirely devoted to the 
precious marbles removed by Lord Elgin fronfc the Parthe- 
non in 1801, lost by shipwreck, recovered bjr divers, and 
purchased by Government, after long controversy, in 1816. 
It is almost forgotten now with what vituperation the 
marbles were assailed on their arrival in England — they 
were " not originals," they were " of the time of Hadrian," 
they were the " works of journeymen, not deserving the 
name of artists," they were " too much broken to be of any 
value." The sum paid to Lord Elgin was less than he 
had expended upon the marbles, and far less than Napo- 
leon was willing to |)ay for them. Yet now they are 



172 WALKS IN LONDON. 

recognised as the greatest masterpieces of Greek art in 
this or any other country. A model of the Parthenon 
(the Temple of Athene) here shows their original position. 
Around the room are the glorious frieze and metopes of the 
temple (their subjects are described beneath): we must 
remember that here they are, as it were, turned inside out. 
The frieze represents the procession which took place every 
five years in honour of the goddess. The south side is the 
least perfect, having been injured by the winds from the sea : 
it is chiefly occupied by the victims, who made this proces- 
sion a kind of cattle-show, as each of the Athenian colonies 
contributed, and, by their anxiety to shine in this, Athens 
knew the disposition of her colonies. Here also we see the 
maidens carrying the sacrificial vessels, the flat vessels being 
used for libations. To meet this procession comes from 
the north side a long cavalcade of chariots and horsemen, 
many of the latter most glorious. From the east end of the 
temple, where the processions united, are representations 
of the gods, without whose presence no Greek festival was 
considered complete, and of the delivery of the peplos^ the 
embroidered veil of Athene, given every five years. 

"The Temple of Minerva in the Acropolis of Athens, erected by 
Tctinus and Callicrates, was under the direction of Phidias, and to him 
we probably owe the composition, style, and character of the sculpture, 
iu addition to much assistance in drawing, modelling, choice of the 
naked, and draperies, as well as occasional execution of parts in the 
marble. 

" The emulators of Phidias were Alcamenes, Critias, Nestocles, and 
Hegias ; twenty years after, Agelades, Gallon, Polycletus, Phragmon, 
(lorgias, Lacon, Myron, Scopas, Pythagoras, and Perelius. 

" It is the peculiar character and praise of Phidias's style that ho 
represented gods better than men. As this sculptor determined the 



THE ELGIN MARBLES. 1 73 

visible idea of Jupiter, his successors employed a hundred years on the 
forms of the inferior divinities. This must, therefore, be denominated 
the subhme era of sculpture. 

* * - • « « « 

" We possess in England the most precious examples of Grecian 
power in the sculpture of animals. The horses of the frieze in the 
Elgin Collection appear to live and move, to roll their eyes, to gallop, 
prance, and curvet ; the veins of their faces and legs seem distended 
with circulation ; in them are distinguished the hardness and decision 
of bony forms, from the elasticity of tendon and the softness of flesh. 
The beholder is charmed with the deer-like lightness and elegance of 
their make, and although the relief is not above an inch from the back- 
ground, and they are so much smaller than nature, we can scarcely 
suffer reason to persuade us they are not alive." — Flaxman. Lectures 
on Sculpture. 

"It is the union of nature with ideal beauty, the probabilities and 
accidents of bone, flesh, and tendon, from extension, flexion, compres- 
sion, gravitation, action, or repose, that rank at once the Elgin 
Marbles above all other works of art in the world. The finest form 
that man ever imagined, or God ever created, must have been formed 
on these eternal principles. . . . Every truth of shape, the result 
of the inherent organization of man as an intellectual being; every 
variation of that shape, produced by the slightest variation of motion, 
in consequence of the slightest variation of intention, acting on it ; 
every result of repose on. flesh as a soft substance, and on bone as a 
hard — both being influenced by the common principles of life and 
gravitation ; every harmony of line in composition, from geometrical 
principle, — all proving the science of the artist ; every beauty of con- 
ception proving his genius ; and every grace of execution proving that 
practice has given his hand power, can be shown to exist in the Elgin 
Marbles. . . . Were the Elgin Marbles lost, there would be as 
great a gap in art as there would be in philosophy if Newton had 
never existed." — B. R. Haydon, 

On the left of the room are the sculptures from the 
eastern pediment of the temple, at which they occupied 
platforms at the two ends, a much larger space in the 
middle than is seen here having been filled by figures which 
are lost. The subject of the whole is the Birth of Athene 
from -the brain of Zeus. The father of the gods complaining 



174 



WALKS IN LONDON. 



of a violent pain in his head, Hephaestus split it open 
with his axe, when Athene sprang forth in full armour. 
The central figures are wanting : those of which we see 
the lemnants represent the gods and goddesses who were 
present at the event, which is supposed to have taken place 
on Olympus. At the south end of the pediment the horses 
of Helios, or the Sun, are rising from the waves ; at the 
north end Selene, or Night, is going down. Of the inter- 
mediate figures only one in rapid movement can, with some 
probability, be identified as Iris, the messenger of the gods, 
going to announce the event. The noble male figure 
reclining on a rock covered with a lion's skin (No. 7) has 
generally, but without reason, been called Theseus. 

" I prefer the Theseus to the Apollo Belvidere, which I believe to 
be only a copy. It has more ideal beauty than any male statue I 
know." — Flaxman, 

On the right are the remains of the western pediment, 
of which the missing portions are better known than 
those of the eastern pediment, owing to the existence of 
drawings taken in 1670. The subject is the Contest of 
Athene, tutelary goddess of Athens, with Poseidon, or 
Neptune, who had inundated Attica. 

" 1 8 10. I used to go down in the evening with a little portfolio and 
bribe the porter at Burlington House, to which the Elgin Marbles 
were now removed, to lend me a lantern, and then, locking myself in, 
take the candle out and make different sketches, till the cold damp 
would almost put the caudle out. As the light streamed across the 
room and died away into obscurity, there was something awful and 
solemn in the grand forms and heads and trunks and fragments of 
mighty temples and columns that lay scattered about in sublime insen- 
sibility, — the remains, the only actual remains, of a mighty people. 
The grand back of the Theseus would come towering close to my eye, 
and his broad shadow spread over the place a depth of mystery and 



THE HELLENIC ROOM, 175 

awe. Why were such beautiful productions ever suffered to be 
destroyed ? Why in a succession of ages has the world again to 
begin ? Why is knowledge ever suffered to ebb ? And why not 
allowed to proceed from where it left off" to an endless perfection ? 
. . . . These questions would occur to me in the intervals of 
drawing, and perplex my mmd to an endless musing." — Haydori's 
A utoiiography. 

At the northern end of the room are some noble frag- 
ments from the Temple of Diana at Ephesus, and a colossal 
lion brought from a Doric tomb on a promontory at Cnidus 
in 1858. 

On the east side of the room is one of the Canephorae 
of the Erectheum, a temple at Athens dedicated jointly 
to Athene Polias and Pandrosos, daughter of Kekrops. 
The portico of this temple, called the Pandroseion, and 
its Canephorae, have been imitated at St. Pancras Church in 
the New Road. 

The Hellenic Room (entered from the east of the Elgin 
Room) is surrounded by reliefs from the Temple of Apollo 
Epicurius (or the Deliverer), discovered in 1812 on the site 
of Phigalia in Arcadia ; they represent contests between the 
Lapithse and Centaurs, and between the Greeks and Amazons. 
Though beautiful in composition, they are full of gross dis- 
proportions and mannerisms, and are immeasurably inferior 
to the Elgin Marbles, though, at the time of their arrival in 
England (18 16), they were attributed to the hand of Phidias, 
an honour which was denied to the great marbles of the 
Parthenon. 

Here are two statues of an Athlete binding his head with a fillet 

•-from the Famese Collection. 

From the east side of the Hellenic Room we enter 



176 WALKS IN LONDON. 

the Assyrian Galleries, filled with the sculptures brought 
by Mr. Layard from the Assyrian ruins of Nimroud, 
Kouyunjik, and Khorsabad in 1847 — 5*. Taking the 
later monuments first, we enter, by a door on the left, the 
Kouyuftjik Gallery, lined Avith sculptures brought from an 
Assyrian edifice at Kouyunjik (opposite Mosul, on the 
Tigris), supposed to have been the palace of Sennacherib. 
Kouyunjik is believed to have been Nineveh itself, while 
the mound now called Nimroud, which is twenty miles 
below the modern Mosul, is believed to have been the 
Calah of Scripture (Gen. x. 8 — 11). 

The first series of slabs (Nos. 2 to 44) in the Kouyunjik Gallery 
represent events in the history of Sennacherib, especially his expedi- 
tion against Merodach Baladan (Jeremiah 1. 2), the king who sent 
letters to Hezekiah (Isaiah xxxix. i), and to whose messenger the 
Jewish monarch exhibited all the treasures of his house. 

The second series, of later date (Nos. 45 to 50), exhibit the vic- 
tories of Assurbanipal, grandson of Sennacherib, over the Elamites. 

The remaining slabs are of the period of Sennacherib (Isaiah 
xxxvii. 37), and illustrate his conquests and the employment of his 
prisoners in his architectural works. In Nos. 51, 52, and 53 they 
are represented dragging to their sites the human-headed bulls which 
may be seen in the next room. 

No. I is a cast from a Relief of Esarhaddon, son of Sennacherib 
(2 Kings xix. 37 ; Ezra iv. 2), on a rock at the mouth of the Nahr el 
Kelb River, near Beyrout in Syria. 

Returning to the Nimroud Central Saloon, we find — 

Left. Reliefs from the Palace of Nimroud (Calah), supposed to 
have been constructed by Esarhaddon. An inscription on one of 
these records the payment of tribute by Menahem, King of Israel 
(2 Kings XV. 20), and so indicates that the sculpture was made 
for Tiglath Pileser II., and transferred by Esarhaddon to his own 
palace. 

Right. A colossal head of a human-headed bull, the largest yet 
found, believed to be of the time of Esarhaddon. 



ASSYRIAN GALLERIES. 17; 

(Beyond the door to the Hellenic Room) Reliefs representing a 
siege. On one of these are two heads, shown by an inscription to 
represent Tiglath Pileser II. and an attendant (2 Kings xiv. 29, 
xvi. 7 ; I Chron. v. 6, 26 ; 2 Chron. xxviii. 20). 

In the centre of the room, a black marble Obelisk, found near the 
centre of the great mound of Nimroud. Its reliefs record the annals 
of Shalmaneser (2 KLings xvii. 3) for thirty-one years, beginning c. B.C. 
860. They exhibit various tributary kings bringing offerings, 
amongst whom the inscriptions mention " Jehu of the House of Omri," 
King of Israel, and Hazael, King of Syria. 

Opposite are two round-headed tablets, with reliefs and inscriptions 
of Shalmaneser and Assur-izir-pal ; on one of them Ahab is men- 
tioned. 

The colossal lion at the door of the Kouyunjik Gallery decorated a 
doorway in a small temple in the north-west quarter of Nimroud. By 
its side was the small statue which stands near it (on its original 
pedestal), representing Assur-izir-pal. 

Opposite are a colossal winged and human-headed lion and a bull, 
from the north-western edifice of Nimroud. Those who look upon 
these gigantic remains will read with interest Mr. Layard's thrilling 
account of their discovery beneath the green moimds which now alone 
mark the great cities of Assyria (Isaiah xxv. 2) : — 

"What more noble forms could have ushered the people into the 
temples of their gods ? What more subhme images could have been 
borrowed from nature, by men who sought, unaided by the light of 
revealed religion, to embody their conception of the wisdom, power, 
and ubiquity of a Supreme Being ? They could find no better type of 
intellect and modesty than the head of the man ; of strength, than the 
body of the lion ; of rapidity of motion, than the wings of the bird. 
These winged human-headed lions were not idle creations, the off- 
spring of mere fancy : their meaning was written upon them. They 
had awed and instructed races which flourished 3,000 years ago. 
Through the portals which they guarded, kings, priests, and warriors 
had borne sacrifices to their altars, long before the wisdom of the East 
had penetrated to Greece, and had furnished its mythology with sym- 
bols long recognised by the Assyrian votaries. They may have been 
buried and their existence may have been unknown before the founda- 
tion of the eternal city. For twenty-five centuries they have been 
hidden from the eye of man." — Layard's Nineveh, 

The Nimroud Gallery is filled with slabs which continue 
the history of Assur-izir-pal (b.c. 880), the earliest Assyrian 

VOL. II. N 



tyS WALKS IN LONDON, 

monarch of whom any large monuments hare been found. 
We may especially notice — 

No. 20, as representing the King, in a rich dress with a royal cap, and 
a sword. 

No. 29, as representing Dagon, or the Fish-god. (See Judges xvi. 
23 ; I Samuel v. 2, 3, 4, 7 ; i Chron. x. 10.) 

No. 33, an eagle-headed god, supposed to represent Nisroch, in whose 
temple Sennacherib was murdered by Adramraelech and Sharezer 
(2 Kings xix. 37). 

At the north-west angle of the Nimroud Gallery is the 
door leading to the Assyrian Side Room, containing — 

A four-sided stela of limestone with a relief of King Simsivul, son 
of Shalmaneser — from the south-eastern edifice of Nimroud. 

(In the cases) Curious cylinders of terra-cotta. One of them is in- 
scribed with the history of the first eight expeditions of Sennacherib, 
including that against Judsea (2 Kings xviii. 13). 

Hence a staircase leads to the Assyrian Basement Room^ 
surrounded with reliefs which portray the history of Assur- 
banipal (Sardanapalus), grandson of Sennacherib, and his 
wars with the Arabians. 

" She doted upon the Assyrians her neighbours, captains and rulers 
clothed most gorgeously, horsemen riding upon horses. . . . She 
saw men portrayed upon the wall, the images of the Chaldeans por- 
trayed with vermilion, girded with girdles upon their loins, exceeding 
in dyed attire upon their heads, all of them princes to look to, after 
the manner of the Babylonians of Chaldea, the land of their nativity." 
— Ezekiel xxiii. 12, 14, 15. 

We must now return through the Nimroud Gallery and 
the Assyrian Transept, whenc* we enter the Egyptian 
Galleries. The larger monuments here are, as far as pos- 
sible, arranged chronologically, and, ascending to at least 
2,000 years before the Christian era, close with the Mahom' 



EGYPTIAN GALLERIES, 179 

medan invasion of Egypt, a.d. 640. We may especially 
notice — 

Southern Gallery, 

In the centre. The famous Rosetta Stone. Its three inscriptions 
are to the same purport — i.e. a decree of the priesthood at Memphis 
c. B.C. 196 in honour of Ptolemy Epiphanes. This has furnished the 
key to the knowledge of Egyptian characters, as one inscription is in 
Greek, while the others are in Hieroglyphic and Enchorial, the two 
forms of the Egyptian language. The stone was found amongst the 
remains of a temple dedicated by Pharaoh-Necho to the god Necho, 
near the Rosetta mouth of the Nile. 

The splendid black Sarcophagus of Ankhsenpiraneferhat, daughter 
of Sammeticus II., and Queen of Amasis II., B.C. 538 — 527. 

Statue of Sekhet (Pasht), inscribed with the name of Sheshonk I. 
(Shishak) — from Camac. (See i Kings xiv. 25 ; 2 Chron. xii. 5, 7.) 

Sarcophagus of Nekhterhebi (Nectanabes), B.C. 378 — 360 — from 
Alexandria. 

Statue of Rameses II. — from the tombs of the kings at Thebes, 

The Central Saloon contains — 

Monuments of the age of Rameses U., the Sesostris of the Greeks, 
especially the upper part of a gigantic statue of that king from the 
Memnonium of Thebes. 

In the Northern Gallery are — 

Two granite lions dedicated by Amenophis HE. (Memnon), and 
inscriptions and statues in honour of that king, under whose rule Egypt 
was especially prosperous. 

Colossal Head and Relief of Thothmes HI. — from Kamak. 

At the end of the Northern Gallery a staircase (lined 
with Egyptian papyri, showing the three forms of writing 
— Hieroglyphic, Hieratic, and Enchorial), leads to the 
Egyptian Ante-Room^ lined with reliefs. In this and the 
succeeding rooms it is unnecessary to notice the contents 
in detail. Each object is admirably described on a label 
placed beneath it, and its position will probably be changed 



i8o WALKS IN LONDON, 

in a short time. The Zoological Collections will be removed 
to South Kensington as soon as the galleries intended for 
their reception are completed. The present order of the 
Rooms (1877) is — 

The First Egyptian Room, 

The Second Egyptian Room^ which also contains the collections of 
ancient Glass. 

The First Vase Room. The vases are chiefly of Greek fabric, and 
are decorated with subjects from the divine or heroic legends of the 
Greeks. Notice especially in the last table-case on the right a vase 
with Aphrodite on a wild swan painted on a white ground. 

The Second Vase Room. 

(Notice especially) Right. Wall Cases. The black Vases with gilt 
ornaments found by Castellani at Capua. 

Right. 1st Table Case. A Duck as a toilet ornament, of an exqui- 
site enamel, adopted by the Greeks from Egypt. 

Left. 1st Table Case. A number of Curses on those who had 
ofi'ended the writers, fixed in the temple of the infernal deities (Pluto, 
Demeter, Persephone). The usual form is "May they never find 
Proserpine propitious." Sometimes the saving clause, " but with me 
may it be well," is added. 

An Urn for bones, with the fee for Charon, which was placed in the 
mouth of the dead. 

A number of powerful little figures from Tanagora in Boeotia. 
One of an old nurse is very amusing. 

Left. Table Case L. \. An Amphora with the sui-prise of Helen 
by Peleus from Causicus in Rhodes. Secured for the Museum after a 
sharp competition with the Empress Eugenie. 

Left. Wall Cases. 29 — 31. Specimens of Pompeian art — good, 
though few. The dawn of the Venetian style of colouring may be seen 
here. 

The Bronze Room. 

Central Table. The glorious head of Artemis found in Armenia — 
from the Castellani Collection. 

Left. Table Case E. Winged head of Hypnos, the god of sleep, 
found at Perugia. 

Iconic bust, from Cyrene, with enamelled eyes. 

The Payne Knight Mercury, on its original base inlaid with silver. 

The Satyr Marsyas in the act of stepping back as Athena threw 
down the flute. The subiect is known from a relief. 



THE KING'S LIBRARY, i8i 

Beautiful lamp representing a Greyhound's head with a Hare*s head 

in its mouth — from Nocera. 

Wall Case, left. A Philosopher — from the harbour of Rhodes. 

The British and Mediceval Room. 

Right. Wall Case 70. Bust of the Emperor Hadrian, found in 
the Thames. 

Helmet like a mask, found at Ribchester in Lancashire, the hair 
waving into the battlements of a city. 

Right. 1st Table Case. Bronze statuette of the Emperor Severus, 
with an enamel breast-plate. 

The Collection of Gems and Gold Ornaments. Here the famous 
Portland Vase is preserved, which was found early in the seventeenth 
century in the Monte del Grano near Rome, and placed in the Bar- 
berini Palace. Hence it was purchased by Sir W. Hamilton, and sold 
to the Duchess of Portland. It is still the property of the Portland 
family. It was smashed to pieces by a madman in 1845, ^^^ has been 
wonderfully well restored. 

The Ethnographical Room. 

The Central Saloon (Zoological — two small rooms on the east of this 
are devoted to the Botanical Collections). 

The Southern Zoological Gallery. 

The Ma?nmalia Saloon. 

The Eastern Zoological Gallery. (Here, above the cases, are a 
series of Portraits, including several of much interest, but, in their 
present position, they are almost invisible.) 

The Northern Zoological Gallery. 

The North Gallery (of Minerals and Fossils), entered from the lobby 
at the end of the Eastern Zoological Gallery. 

Descending the staircase at the end of the Eastern 
Zoological Gallery, we come to the King's Library, 
devoted to the books collected by George III., and 
acquired by the nation under George IV. The glass cases 
in this room are devoted to SpecitJiens of the Arts of Print- 
i?ig and Illustration, from the earliest times in England 
and other countries, and Books contaifiing Historic Auto- 
graphs. 

The Manuscript Saloon has a number of cases which 
exhibit, among other curiosities — 



1 83 IVALKS IN LONDON. 

The MS. Prayer-book used by Lady Jane Grey on the scaffold. 

The Draft of the Will of Mary Queen of Scots, written by her at 
Sheffield, 1577. 

The Agreement signed by Milton for the sale of " Paradise Lost,'* 
April 27, 1667. 

An autograph sketch by Lord Nelson, describing the Battle of 
the Nile. 

An autograph note of the Duke of Wellington written on the Field 
of Waterloo. 

MS. works of Ben Jonson, John Locke, Rousseau, Walter 
Scott, &c. 

Autograph Letters of Ariosto, Galileo, Calvin, Luther, Erasmus, 
Melancthon, More, Sidney, Raleigh, Knox, Bacon, Hampden, Penn, 
Newton, Addison, Dryden, Prior, Swift Racine, Voltaire, Johnson, 
Byron, Southey, Washington, Franklin, &c. 

The Grenville Library contains the valuable collection of 
books bequeathed to the nation by the Right Hon. Thomas 
Grenville in 1847. 

The Medal and P7'int Rooms are only shown by especial 
permission. In the Print Room is an exquisite collection 
of Drawifigs and Sketches by the Great Masters. From the 
centre of the Entrance Hall we enter (with a ticket 
obtained on the right of the main entrance) the magnificent 
circular Reading Room of the Library. 

Open daily except Sundays, Christmas Day, Ash Wednesday, and 
Good Friday — and between the ist and 7 th of January, the ist and 
7th of May, and the ist and 7th of September, inclusive. 

A printed ticket giving permission to read for six months is granted 
on presenting a written application, with a recommendation from a 
London householder, to the pi-incipal Librarian. This ticket is 
renewed on application. Persons under twenty-one years of age are 
not admitted. 



The Reading Room, built from designs of Sydney Smirke, 
occupies the central court of the Museum, and is one hundred 



BLOOMSBURY SQUARE, 183 

and forty feet in diameter, and one hundred and six feet high. 
The reading-tables converge to a common centre occupied 
by the circular tables containing the catalogue. 



Returning to Oxford Street, on the left, at the comer of 
Hart Street, is the Church of SU George^ Bloomsbury^ 
built hy Nicholas Hawksmoor, 1731- It has a very hand- 
some portico, but a most ridiculous steeple, planned from 
the description in PUny of the tomb of King Mausolus in 
Caria, and surmounted by a statue of George I., whence 
the epigram — 

" When Harry the Eighth left the Pope in the lurch, 
The Protestants made him the head of the Church ; 
But George's good subjects, the Bloomsbury people, 
Instead of the church, made him head of the steeple." • 

There is a tablet here to the great Earl of Mansfield, who 
lived hard by in Bloomsbury Square, where his house and 
library were destroyed in the Gordon riots of 1780. In the 
porch is a monument, with lines by Sir John Hawkins, to 
the popular and benevolent Justice Welch, the friend of 
Dr. Johnson, who at one time thought of proposing to 
his sister Mary, afterwards married to Nollekens, the 
sculptor. 

[Southampton Street leads from Oxford Street (left) into 
Bloomsbury Square, called Southampton Square when it was 
first built, in 1665, by Thomas Wriothesley, Earl of South- 
ampton, father of Lady Rachel Russell. His house — 
Southampton House — occupied the whole north side of the 
square till 1800. In its early days this square was so 

• This steeple is seen in the back of Hogarth's " Gin Lane." 



1 84 WALKS IN LONDON, 

fashionable that "foreign princes were carried to see 
Bloomsbury Square as one of the wonders of England." 

" In Palace-yard, at nine, you'll find me there, 
At ten, for certain, sir, in Bloomsbury Square." — Pope, 

Among the residents in the square were the Earl of 
Chesterfield, Sir Hans Sloane, Lord Mansfield, and Dr. 
Radcliffe. Disraeli's "Curiosities of Literature" were 
written in No. 6. Richard Baxter lived in the square, and 
here his wife died, June 14, 16 Si. On the north side is 
a seated statue (bronze) of Charles James Fox, by West- 
inacott. 

Opposite this, Bedford Place (occupying the site of the 
old house of the Dukes of Bedford, pulled down in 1800) 
leads into Russell Square, a name which will recall to many 
minds the homes of the Selbys and Osbornes in Thackeray's 
" Vanity Fair." On its north side is a seated statue of 
Francis Russell, Duke of Bedford, by Westmacott. It was 
in No. 21 that Sir Samuel Romilly died by his own hand 
in 1818. In No. 66, Sir Thomas Lawrence, who had lived 
and painted in that house for twenty-five years, died 
January 7, 1830. Cossacks, " mounted on their small 
white horses, with their long spears grounded,"* stood 
sentinels at its door while he was painting their general, 
Platoff. From the north-west angle of Bedford Square we 
may proceed, through Woburn Square, to Gordon Square^ 
containing the modem Catholic Apostolic (Irvingite) Churchy 
a very handsome building in the Early English style, by 
BrandoJi and Ritchie. 

Parallel with Bedford Place was Upper Monti gue Street^ 

• Rev. J. Mitford in the Gent. Mag., Jan., 1818. 



1 



THE FOUNDLING HOSPITAL, 185 

behind which was " the Field of Forty Footsteps." Legend 
tells that two brothers were in love with one lady, who 
would not declare which she preferred, but sate in the field 
to watch the duel which was fatal to both ; and that the 
bank where she sate, and the footprints of the brothers, 
never bore grass again. 

On the east side of Russell Square opens Guildford Street, 
which leads to the Foundling Hospital, founded in 1739 by 
the benevolent Thomas Coram, captain of a trading vessel, 
for "the reception, maintenance, and education of exposed 
and deserted young children." In 1760, the Institution 
ceased to be a " Foundling " Hospital except in name, but 
is still applied to the reception of illegitimate children. 
The girls wear brown dresses with white caps, tuckers, and 
aprons : the boys have red sashes and cap-bands. 

A characteristic statue of Coram by Calder Marshall 
stands on the gates leading into the wide open space in 
front of the Hospital. On Mondays, between ten and four, 
visitors are admitted to see the collection of pictures, for 
the most part presented to the Hospital by their artists. 
The works of Hogarth, who was a great benefactor to the 
charity, were first publicly exhibited here, and the interest 
they excited may be considered to have suggested the first 
exhibition of the Royal Academy. The collection is im- 
portant as containing two great works of Hogarth, and 
interesting as being generally illustrative of the works of the 
earlier British artists, and for its views of the charitable insti- 
tutions of London in the middle of the eighteenth century. 

First Room. 

P. van Schendel. A Poulterer's Shop. 

A. Tidemand. A Mother teaching her Boy to read. 



i86 WALKS IN LONDON. 

* Hogarth. 1 750. The March to Finchley. This famous picture 
was disposed of by a lottery of 2,cx)0 tickets. Hogarth sold 1,843 
chances, and gave the remaining 157 to the Hospital, which drew the 
prize. 

Sir G. Kneller. Portrait of Handel. 

Second Room, 

Wale. Greenwich Hospital. 1746. 

Highmore. Hagar and Ishmael. Gen. xxi. 17, 

Haytley. Bethlem Hospital. 1746. 

Gainsborough. The Charter-House. 1746. 

Wale. Christ's Hospital. 1746. 

Haytley. Chelsea Hospital. 1 746. 

Hayman. Pharaoh's daughter giving Moses to nurse. Ex. ii. 9. 

Wale. St. Thomas's Hospital. 1746. 

Wilson. St. George's Hospital. 1746. 

Hogarth. Moses brought to Pharaoh's daughter. Ex. ii. lO. 

Wilson. The Foundling Hospital. 1 746. 

Fourth Room, 

Raffaelle. Cartoon of the Massacre of the Innocents— bequeathed 
by Prince Hoare. 

Collet. The Press Gang. 

Hudson. Portrait of John Milner. 

Allan Ramsay. Portrait of Dr. Mead. 1 746. 

Sir J. Reynolds. Portrait of Lord Dartmouth. 

Highmore. Portrait of Thomas Emerson. 1746. 

Shackleton. Portrait of George H. 1758. 

Wilson. Portrait of the Earl of Macclesfield. 1760. 

* Hogarth. Portrait of Captain Thomas Coram. 1740. 

"The portrait I painted with most pleasure, and in which I par- 
ticularly wished to excel, was that of Captain Coram for the Foundling 
Hospital ; and if I am so wretched an artist as my enemies assert, it is 
somewhat strange that this, which was one of the first I painted the 
size of life, should stand the test of twenty years' competition, and be 
generally thought the best portrait in the place, notwithstanding the 
first painters in the kingdom exerted all their talents to vie with it." — 
Hogarth. 

Wilson, Portrait of Francis Fauquier, Lieut.-Gfovemor of Virgiauu 
1760. 



HOLBORN. 187 

In this room are preserved a sketch for the Arms of the HospitaL 
presented by Hogarth; the pocket-book of Captain Coram, 1729; and 
the MS. of the Messiah — the score and all the parts — bequeathed v.; 
the Hospital by the will of the great composer. A fine bust of Handtl 
is by Roubiliac, 



In the Chapel Handel performed his oratorio of the 
Messiah in aid of the funds of the Hospital with a result 
of ;^7,ooo. The existing organ was given by Handel. The 
altar-piece of Christ blessing little children is by West. 
At the suggestion of Handel, the singing has been kept 
up, with a view to the contributions at the doors after 
the services. Tenterden, the Canterbury barber's boy who 
rose to become Chief Justice of England {ob, 1832), is buried 
in the chapel. The Founder was the first person buried in 
the vaults. 

Behind the Hospital is the Ceiiietery of St. George the 
Martyr, where Robert Nelson, the friend of the Nonjurors, 
is buried, with an epitaph of eighty lines on his gravestone. 
Here also are the graves of Jonathan Richardson, the 
painter, 1771 ; John Campbell, author of the " Lives of the 
Admirals," 1775; and Zachary Macaulay, father of the 
historian, 1838.] 

Beyond the opening of Southampton Street, the name of 
the street along which we have been walking so long is changed. 
It is no longer Oxford Street. In other parts of London 
we have already seen how great a feature of the London of 
the Henrys and Edwards were the numerous streams which 
rose on the different hill-sides, and flowed towards the 
Thames or the Fleet, and which are now either swallowed 
up or arched over, though they sometimes leave the associa- 
tion of theii name to a street which marks their rise or theu 



1 88 WALKS IN LONDON. 

course. One of the most important of these streamlets, one 
which flowed down the steep hill-side to join the Turnmill 
Brook where Fariingdon Street now stands, was the Old 
Bourne or Hill Bourne, which broke out at the point now 
called Holborn Bars, and which, though it has totally dis- 
appeared now, still gives a name to the Old Bourne or 
Holborn Hill. Till the end of the sixteenth century this 
hill was almost in the open country, and, in the old maps of 
1560, only a single row of houses will be seen on the north 
side of the thoroughfare. The street called Field Lane 
was a path between open fields, and Saffron Hill was an 
open park attached to the gardens of Ely House, and famous 
for its saffron. To the south were the broad acres of 
pasturage called Lincoln's Inn Fields, and barriers were 
erected to prevent the cattle which fed there from straying 
into the neighbouring highway, which are still commemo- 
rated in the openings called Great, Little, and New Turn- 
stile. Gerard the herbalist, writing in 1597, mentions the 
large garden behind his house in Holborn, and the number 
of rare plants which grew there. 

Holborn, which escaped the Great Fire, still contains 
many old houses anterior to the reign of Charles H., those 
beyond Holborn Bars to the west being outside the liberties 
of the City. Milton Hved here from 1647 to 1649, and here 
wrote his "Tenure of Kings and Magistrates," "Eicono- 
clastes," and the " Defence of the People of England against 
Salmasius." The hill of Holborn was called the " Heavy 
Hill," for by it the condemned were driven to Tyburn from 
Newgate and the Tower, wearing on their breasts the nosegays 
which, by old custom, were always presented to them as 
they reached St. Sepulchre's Church. Often their progress 



HOLBORN. 189 

was almost triumphal as they passed between the crowded 
windows on either side the way. Gay in the Beggars' 
Opera makes one of his characters, Polly, say of Captain 
Macheath, '• Methinks I see him already in the cart, sweeter 
and more lovely than the nosegay in his hand ! I hear 
the crowd extolling his resolution and intrepidity! What 
volleys of sighs are sent from the windows of Holborn that 
so comely a youth should be brought to the sack I " And 
Swift, describing the last hours of Tom Clinch, says — 

** As clever Tom Clinch, while the rabble was bawling, 
Rode stately through Holborn to die at his calling, 
He stopt at the George for a bottle of sack, 
And promised to pay for it when he came back. 
His waistcoat, and stockings, and breeches were white ; 
His cap had a new cherry-ribbon to tie 't. 
The maids to the doors and the balconies ran. 
And said ' Lack-a-day, he's a proper young man ! * 
And as from the windows the ladies he spied, 
Lilce a beau in a box he bow'd low on each side ! 

Then follow the practice of clever Tom Clinch, 
Who hung like a hero, and never would flinch." 

Opening from Holborn on the left is Kingsgate Street, 
leading into Theobald's Road, which marks the private road 
of James I. to his palace at Theobald's. Pepys describes 
Charles II. as being upset in his coach in Kingsgate Street, 
with the Duke of York, Duke of Monmouth, and Prince 
Rupert. The next street, Dean Street, leads into Red Lion 
Square, so called from the Red Lion Inn, whither the bodies 
of Cromwell, Ireton, and Bradshaw were brought when 
exhumed from Westminster Abbey, to be dragged the next 
day on sledges to Tyburn. In No. 13 lived and died 
Jonas Han way, the traveller, who was the first person in 



I^ WALKS IN LONDON. 

England who carried an umbrella, and he only died in 
1786 ! The handsome brick Church of St. John the Evan- 
gelist, on the west of the square, was built 1876 — 78. On 
the right of Holborn, between it and Lincoln's Inn Fields, is 
Whetstone Park, of immoral reputation, constantly alluded 
to by the dramatists and satirists of the last century. 
Houses were first built here, in the time of Charles I., by 
W. Whetstone, vestryman of St. Giles's. On the left is 
FulwoocTs Rents, where Squire's Coffee House stood, whence 
several numbers of the Spectator are dated. It is now a 
most miserable court, but there is a curious old house on its 
east side. On the south side of Holborn (opposite the 
opening of Red Lion Street), where the Inns of Court 
Hotel now stands, No. 270 was the Blue Boar Inn (now 
removed to 285), where the famous letter of Charles I. to 
Henrietta Maria was intercepted by Cromwell and Iieton. 



" There came a letter from one of our spies, who was of the king's 
bedchamber, which acquainted us that on that day our final doom was 
decreed ; that he could not possibly tell what it was, but that we 
might find it out, if we could intercept a letter sent from the king to 
the queen, wherein he declared what he would do. The letter, he 
said, was sewed up in the skirt of a saddle, and the bearer of it would 
come with the saddle upon his head, about ten of the clock that night, 
to the Blue Boar Inn in Holborn ; for there he was to take horse and 
go to Dover with it. This messenger knew nothing of the letter in 
the saddle, but some persons at Dover did. We were at Windsor 
when we received this letter, and immediately upon the receipt of it 
Ireton and I resolved to take one trusty fellow with us, and with 
trooper's habits to go to the Inn in Holborn ; which accordingly we 
did, and set our man at the gate of the Inn, where the wicket only was 
open to let people in and out. Our man was to give us notice when 
anyone came with a saddle, whilst we in the disguise of common 
troopers called for cans of beer, and continued drinking till about ten 
o'clock. The sentinel at the gate then gave notice that the man with 
the saddle was come in. Upon this we immediately arose, and, as the 



GRAY'S INN LANE. I9I 

man was leading out his horse saddled, came up to him with drawn 
swords and told him that we were to search his saddle and so dismiss 
him. Upon that we ungirt the saddle and carried it into the stall 
where we had been drinking, and left the horseman with our sentinel : 
then, lipping up one of the skirts of the saddle, we there found the 
letter of which we had been informed, and having got it into our 
own hands, we delivered the saddle again to the man, telling him he 
was an honest man, and bid him go about his business. The man, 
not knowing what had been done, went away to Dover. As soon as 
we had the letter we opened it ; in which we found the king had 
acquainted the queen that he was now courted by both the factions — 
the Scotch Presbyterians and the Army ; and which bid fairest for him 
should have him ; but he thought he should close with the Scots, 
sooner than the other. Upon this," added Cromwell, "we took horse, 
and went to Windsor, and finding that we were not likely to have any 
tolerable terms from the king, we immediately from that time forward 
resolved his ruin." — Earl of Orrery' s State Papers, fol. 1742, p. 15. 

On the right, beyond the opening of Chancery Lane, 
Southampton Buildings mark the site of Southampton 
House. It was only in 1876 that (in No. 322, Holborn) the 
last remains of the old building were destroyed, where the 
Earl of Southampton, father of Lady Rachel Russell, died. 
Some of Lady Rachel's letters are dated from this house, 
and it was in passing its windows that Lord William 
Russell's fortitude forsook him for a single instant as he 
gazed upon the house where the love of his life began ; then 
he went on his way to execution saying, " The bitterness of 
death is now past." 

On the left is Gray's Inn Lane, by which Tom Jones is 
described as entering London to put up at the " Bull and 
Gate " in Holborn. Here are the great Offices of Messrs. 
Cubitt the builders, who give work to 800 men upon the 
premises, the numbers employed by the firm altogether 
amounting to 3,000. 

It was in Fox Court, the first turning on the right, that 



19a WALKS IN LONDON, 

the Countess of Macclesfield gave birth to Richard Savage 
the poet, Jan. 10, 1697. On the left, opposite the wonder- 
fully picturesque Staples Inn (see Ch. III.), is the entrance 
of Brooke Street^ named from Fulke Greville, Lord Brooke, 
who felt it an honour to record in his epitaph that he had 
been "servant to Queen Elizabeth, counsellor to King James, 
and friend to Sir Philip Sidney." He was murdered (1628) 
in Brooke House, which stood on the site of Greville 
Street (which, with Warwick Market and Street and Beau- 
champ Street, is also named from him), by one Ralph 
Haywood, a dependant with whom he had quarrelled. In 
the garret of one of the houses (No. 38) pulled down in 
1875-6, the unhappy poet Thomas Chatterton died, August 

25. 1770™ 

" the marvellous boy, 
The sleepless soul that perished in his pride." 

At sixteen he had published the " Poems of Thomas Rowley" 
forged on parchment, which he pretended to have found in 
the muniment-room of St. Mary Redcliffe, at Bristol, and 
that they had lain there for four hundred years, in the iron- 
bound chest of William Canynge, a merchant, afterwards 
Dean of Westbury. In the April preceding his death he 
came up from Bristol to London, filled with hope and 
ambition, but, before four months were over, often found 
himself on the verge of starvation, simply because his 
pride was such that it was almost impossible to show him 
kindness, and, in his eighteenth year, probably in a fit of 
the insanity which also showed itself in his sister, he ended 
his days by poison. His death passed almost unnoticed, 
and he received a pauper's funeral. In the words of his 
epitaph at Bristol — " Reader, judge not ; if thou art a 



ST. ANDREWS, HOLBORN. 193 

Christian, believe that he shall be judged by a superior 
Power ; to that Power alone he is answerable." Let him 
rather be remembered by the noble lines in his " Resig- 
nation " — 

** Oh God, whose thunder shakes the sky, 
"Whose eye this atom globe surveys, 
To thee, my only rock, I fly ; 
Thy mercy in thy justice praise. 



The gloomy mantle of the night, 
"Which on my sinking spirit steals. 

Will vanish at the morning light 

"Which God, my East, my Sun, reveals." 



Brooke Street ends, in Baldwin's Gardens,* in the arched 
gate of the Church of St. Alban's, Holborn, opened in 1865. 
It is a handsome brick church, designed by BuUerfield, 
with stone, terra-cotta, and alabaster decorations, and has 
become celebrated from its ritualistic services, with incense 
and vestments. The peculiarly bad character once attached 
to Baldwin's Gardens and Fulwood's Rents may be owing to 
the fact that these were amongst the places — Cities of 
Refuge insulated in the midst of London — which, by royal 
charter, once gave sanctuary to criminals and debtors. 

Now, on the left of Holborn, is Furnival's Inn, and on 
the right Barnard's Inn (see Ch. II.). No. 123, the Old 
Bell Inn, is an old hostelrie with balconies round a cour- 
yard. Just at the opening of the Holborn Viaduct — 
which annihilated the " Heavy Hill," and was con- 
structed in 1866-69, to the great convenience of traffic, 
and destruction of the picturesque — is St. A?idrew's Churchy 

* Named after Baldwin, one ot the royal (gardeners of Elisabeth. 
VOL. II. O 



194 WALKS IN LONDON. 

which escaped the Fire, but was nevertheless rebuilt by 
Wren in 1686. Internally it is a bad likeness of St. James's, 
Piccadilly, with encircling galleries, a waggon-headed 
ceiling, and some good stained glass of 17 10, by Price, of 
York. The organ is that, made by Harris, which was dis- 
carded at the Temple on the judgment of Judge Jeffreys. 
The monuments formerly in the church are removed to the 
ante-chapel under the tower: they include a tablet to John 
Emery the comedian, 1822. His epitaph narrates that — 

** Each part he shone in, but excelled in none 
So well as husband, father, friend, and son." 

The register commemorates the marriage, in the old clmrch, 
of Col. Hutchinson, with the charming Lucy, second daughter 
of Sir Allan Apsley, late Lieutenant of the Tower of London, 
July 3, 1638. Other interesting entries record the burial (in 
the cemetery of Shoe Lane workhouse) of the unfortunate 
Chatterton, August 28, 1770, and the baptism here of the 
almost more unfortunate Richard Savage, son of Lrord Rivers 
and the Countess of Macclesfield, who was treated with the 
utmost cruelty by his mother, who disowned him, aban- 
doned him, and used all efforts to have him hung for the 
death of a Mr. Sinclair, killed in a fray at Charing Cross. 
The principal poems of Savage were the "Wanderer" and 
the " Bastard," in which he exposed his mother's unnatural 
conduct. He died in Newgate, where he was imprisoned 
for debt, and he was buried in St. Peter's Churchyard. 
Another poet, Henry Neele, author of the " Romance of 
English History," was buried in St. Andrew's Churchyard, 
In his father's grave, on which he had inscribed the 
lines — 



ST. ANDREW'S, HOLBORN, 195 

'* Good night, good night, sweet spirit ! thou hast cast 
Thy bonds of clay away from thee at last ; 
Broke the vile earthly fetters which alone 
Peld thee at distance from thy Maker's throne : 
But oh ! those fetters to th' immortal mind, 
Were links of love to those thou'st left behind ; 
For thee we mourn not : as th' apostle prest 
His dungeon pillow, till the angel guest 
Drew nigh, and when the light that round him shone 
Beamed on the prisoner, his bands were gone : 
So wert thou captive to disease and pain 
Till Death, the brightest of the angelic train, 
Pour'd Heaven's own radiance by Divine decree 
Around thy suflFering soul — and it was free." 

In this churchyard also was buried Thomas Wriothesley, 
the violent Chancellor of Heiiry VIII., who impeached 
Queen Catherine Parr for heresy, and also, not content with 
sitting in judgment, himself lent a hand to turn the rack by 
which Anne Askew was being tortured. Joseph Strutt, 
author of " Sports and Pastimes of the People of England," 
was buried here in 1802. Against the north outside wall of 
the church, opposite the handsome steps leading to the 
Viaduct, is a curious relief of the Day of Judgment — the 
Saviour appearing in the clouds above ; and below, the dead 
bursting open their coffins. 

Hacket, Bishop of Lichfield, had been previously rector of 
St. Andrew's. One day while he was reading prayers here in 
church, a soldier of the Earl of Essex came in, and pointing a 
pistol at his breast, commanded him to read no further. 
Hacket calmly replied, " I shall do my duty as a clergyman, 
you may do yours as a soldier," — and proceeded with the 
service. Stillingfleet, Bishop of Worcester, was also 
rector of St. Andrew's (presented 1665). In the chancel is 
the grave of another eminent rector, Dr. Henry Sacheverel 



196 WALKS IN LONDON, 

{ob. 1724), presented to the living by Bolingbrol?e in 
gratitude for a good story told him by Swift, and im- 
peached before the House of Commons for his political 
sermons, 1709-10. He was, says Bishop Burnet "a bold 
insolent man, with a very small measure of religion, virtue, 
learning, or good sense ; but he resolved to force himself 
into popularity and preferment, by the most petulant rail- 
ings at dissenters and low churchmen, in several sermons and 
libels, written without either chasteness of style or liveliness 
of expression." The Duchess of Marlborough describes 
him as " an ignorant impudent incendiary ; a man who was 
the scorn even of those who made use of him as a tool." 

Almost opposite St. Andrew's Church, on the left, is the 
entrance of Ely Place^ marking the site of the grand old 
palace of the Bishops of Ely, once entered by a great gate- 
way, built by Bishop Arundel in 1388. The palace was 
bequeathed to the see by Bishop John de Kirkeby, who died 
in 1290. Here, in 1399, died " Old John of Gaunt, time- 
honoured Lancaster," his own palace of the Savoy having 
been burnt by the rebels under Wat Tyler. " It fell, about 
the feast of Christmas," says Froissart, " that Duke John of 
Lancaster — who lived in great displeasure, what because the 
king had banished his son out of the realm for so little 
cause, and also because of the evil governing of the realm 
by his nephew. King Richard — (for he saw well, if he 
long persevered, and were suffered to continue, the realm 
was likely to be utterly lost) — with these imaginations and 
others, the duke fell sick, whereon he died ; whose death 
was greatly sorrowed by all his friends and lovers." It is 
here that, according to Shakspeare, Richard's dying uncle 
thus addressed him : — 



ELY PLACE. 19? 

•* A thousand flatterers sit within thy crown, 
Whose compass is no bigger than thy head ; 
And yet, incaged in so small a verge. 
The waste is no whit lesser than thy land. 
Oh, had thy grandsire, with a prophet's eye, 
Seen how his son's son would destroy his sons, 
From forth thy reach he would have laid thy shame. 
Deposing thee before thou wert possessed, 
Which art possessed now to depose thyself. 
Why, cousin, wert thou regent of the world, 
It were a shame to let this land by lease : 
But, for thy world, enjoying but this land, 
Is it not more than shame to shame it so ? 
Landlord of England art thou, and not king," 

The garden of Ely House was great and famous. Saffron 
Hill still bears witness to the saffron which grew there, and 
Vine Street to its adjacent vineyard, while its roses and its 
strawberries are both matters of history. Holinshed de- 
scribes how (on the 13th of June, 1483), while the lords 
were sitting in council at the Tower, " devising the honour- 
able solemnity of the young King (Edward V.'s) corona- 
tion," the Protector came in, and requested the Bishop of 
Ely to send for some of his strawberries from his garden in 
Holborn. The scene is given by Shakspeare. 
Gloucester comes in and says — 

** My lord of Ely, when I was last in Holborn, 
I saw good strawberries in your garden there ; 
I do beseech you, send for some of them I " 

and the Bishop replies — 

" Marry, I will, my lord, with all my heart.* 

The Bishop then goes out to send for the strawberries, 
and, on his return, finds Gloucester gone, and exclaims — 

♦* Where is my lord of Gloucester ? I liave sent for those strawberries ;'* 



rqS WALKS IN LONDON. 

and Lord Hastings replies — 

" His grace looks cheerfully and smooth this morning. 
There's some conceit or other likes him well, 
When that he bids good-morrow with such spirit." 

But a few minutes after Gloucester, returning, accuses 
Hastings of witchcraft, and he is hurried off to be beheaded 
in the Tower courtyard below. 

Another record of the fertility of the Ely Place garden 
will be found in the fact that when, to please Elizabeth, 
Bishop Cox leased the gatehouse and garden to her 
favourite, Sir Christopher Hatton, for a quit-rent of a red 
rose, ten loads of hay, and ;£"io yearly, he retained the 
right not only of walking in the gardens, but of gathering 
twenty bushels of roses yearly ! Sir Christopher Hatton 
expended a large sum upon Ely Place, and petitioned 
Elizabeth to alienate to him the whole of the house and 
gardens. She immediately desired Bishop Cox to do so, 
but he refused, saying that ** in his conscience he could not 
do it, being a piece of sacrilege ; " that he was intrusted with 
the property of the see " to be a steward, and not a scatterer." 
The Bishop was, however, eventually obliged to consent to 
the alienation of the property to Sir Christopher till all the 
money he had expended upon Ely Place should be repaid 
by the see. It was when the Queen found his successor, 
Ur. Martin Heton, unwilling to fulfil these terms, that she 
addressed to him her characteristic note — 

" Proud Prelate ! I understand you are backward in complying with 
your agreement : but I would have you know that I, who made you 
what you are, can unmake you ; and if you do not forthwith fulfil 
your engagement, by God I will immediately unfrock you. Eliza- 
beth." 
The money which Sir Christopher had expended upon Ely 



ELY PLACE. 199 

Place was borrowed from the Queen, and it was her demand- 
ing a settlement of their accounts which caused his death. 
" It broke his heart," says Fuller, '' that the queen, which 
seldom gave loans, and never forgave due debts, rigorously 
demanded the payment of some arrears which Sir Chris 
topher did not hope to have remitted, and did only desire 
to have forborne : failing herein in his expectation, it went 
to his heart, and cast him into a mortal disease. The 
queen afterwards did endeavour what she could to recover 
him, bringing, as some say, cordial broths unto him with 
her own hands ; but all would not do. There's no pulley 
can draw up a heart once cast down, though a queen her- 
self should set her hand thereunto." Sir Christopher died 
in Ely House, September 20, 159 1. His residence here 
gave a name to Hatton Garden, which now occupies a 
great part of the site of the gardens of Ely Place. Here 
the beautiful Lady Hatton, widow of Sir Christopher's 
nephew, was courted at the same time by Lord Bacon and 
Sir Edward Coke, the famous lawyer. She married the 
latter, but soon quarrelled with him and refused him 
admittance to her house, with the same success with which 
she and her successors repelled the attempts of the Bishops 
of Ely to recover the whole of their property, though they 
retained the old buildings beyond the gateway, where 
Laney, Bishop of Ely, died in 1674-5. It was not till 
the death of the last Lord Hatton in 1772 that the two 
hundred years' dispute was settled, when the bishops 
resigned Ely Place to the Crown for No. 37, Dover 
Street, Piccadilly, which they still possess. In the reign 
of James I., Ely Place was inhabited by Gondomar, the 
famous Spanish ambassador. 



200 WALKS IN LONDON, 

The only remaining fragment of old Ely House is 
the chapel, dedicated to St. EtJieldreda (630), daughter of 
Anna, King of the West Angles, and wife of Egfrid, King of 
Northumberland, whose society she forsook to become 
Abbess of Ely and foundress of its cathedral. She was 
best known after death by the popular name of St. Awdry, 
A fair was held in her honour, at which a particular kind 
of beads was sold called St. Awdry or Tawdry beads. 
Gradually these grew to be of the shabbiest and cheapest 
description, and became a by-word for anything shabby or 
flimsy — whence our familiar word " tawdry " commemorates 
St. Etheldreda. The chapel, long given up to the Welsh 
residents in London, is now in the hands of Roman 
Catholics, who have treated it with the utmost regard for 
its ancient characteristics. The walls of the ancient crypt 
are left with their rugged stonework unaltered. The ceiling 
is not vaulted, and the roof is formed by the chapel floor, 
but some stone pillars have been supplied in the place of 
the solid chestnut posts by which it was once sustained. 
A solemn half-light steals into this shadowy church from 
its deeply recessed stained windows, and barely allows one 
to distinguish the robed figures of the nuns who are con- 
stantly at prayers here. The church has not been " restored " 
into something utterly unlike its original state, as is usually 
the case in England. 

In the upper church, which retains its grand old decorated 
window, the last " Mystery " was publicly performed in 
England — the Passion — in the time of James I. It was 
nere also that John Evelyn's daughter Susanna was married 
(April 27, 1693) to William Draper, by Dr. Tenison, then 
Bishop of Lincoln. Cowper, in the " Task," commemorates 



SNOIV HILL. 201 

the over-loyalty of the chapel clerk, who astonished the 
congregation by singing God save King George on the 
arrival of the news (1746) of the defeat of Prince Charles 
Edward by the Duke of Cumberland. 

" So in the chapel of old Ely House, 
When wandering Charles, who meant to be the third, 
Had fled from WiUiam, and the news was fresh, 
The simple clerk, but loyal, did announce. 
And eke did loar, right merrily, two staves 
Sung to the praise and glory of King George." 

A relic of the bishops' residence in Ely Place may be 
observed in a blue mitre, with the date 1540, on the wall of 
a court leading from hence to Hatton Garden. 

At the entrance of the Viaduct from Holborn is an 
Equestrian Statue of the Prince Consort, Albert of Saxe 
Gotha, saluting the City of London, by Bacon, erected in 
1873. Since the opening of the Viaduct people have 
ceased to remember the steepness of Snow Hill, down which 
the pestilent street-marauders called Mohocks in Queen 
Anne's time used to amuse themselves by rolling defence- 
less women in barrels. 

" Who has not heard the Scourer's midnight fame ? 
Who has not trembled at the Mohocks' name } 
I pass their desperate deeds and mischief, done 
Where irom Snow Hill black steepy torrents run, 
How matrons, hooped within the hogshead's womb, 
Were tumbled furious thence." — Gay. Trivia. 



CHAPTER V. 
WHITEHALL. 

ALMOST the whole of the space between Charing Cross 
and Westminster on one side, and between St. 
James's Park and the Thames on the other, was once occu- 
pied by the great royal palace of Whitehall. 

The first palace on this site was built by Hubert de Burgh, 
Earl of Kent, the minister of Henry III., who bought the 
land from the monks of Westminster for 140 marks of silver 
and the annual tribute of a wax taper. He bequeathed his 
property here to the Convent of the Black Friars in Holborn, 
where he was buried, and they, in 1248, sold it to Walter de 
Grey, Archbishop of York, after which it continued, as York 
Place, to be the town-house of the Archbishops of York till 
the time of VVolsey. 

By Wolsey, York Place was almost entirely rebuilt Storer, 
in his " Metrical Life of Wolsey," says— : 

"Where fruitful Thames salutes the learned shoare 
Was this grave prelate and the muses placed, 
And by those waves he builded had before 

A royal house with learned muses graced, 
But by his death imperfect and defaced." 

Here the cardinal lived in more than regal magnificence. 



WHITEHALL. 203 

** sweet as summer to all that sought him," and with a 
household of eight hundred persons. 

" Of gentlemen ushers he had twelve daily waiters, besides one in the 
privy chamber, and of gentlemen waiters in his privy chamber he had 
six, of lords nine or ten, who had each of them two men allowed to 
attend upon them, except the Earl of Derby, who always was allowed 
five men. Then had he of gentlemen cup-bearers, carvers, servers, both 
of the privy chamber and of the great chamber, with gentlemen and 
daily waiters, forty persons ; of yeomen ushers, six ; of grooms in his 
chamber, eight ; of yeomen in his chamber, forty-five daily. He had 
also almsmen, sometimes more in number than at other times." — Stow. 

Hither Henry VHI. came masked to a banquet,* where, 
after the king had intrigued, danced, and accompanied the 
ladies at mumchance, he took off his disguise, and they 
*' passed the whole night with banquetting, dancing, and 
other triumphant devices, to the great comfort of the king, 
and pleasant regard of the nobility there assembled." It 
is at this banquet that Shakspeare portrays the first meeting 
of the king with Anne Boleyn.f 

It was hither that, when his disgrace befell, the Duke of 
Suffolk came to bid Wolsey resign the Great Seal, and 
hence, having delivered an inventory of all his treasures to 
the king, the Cardinal " took barge at his privy stairs, and 
so went by water to Putney," on his way to Esher, leaving 
his palace to his master, who almost immediately occupied it. 

Henry VIII. changed the name of York Place to "the 
King's Manor of Westminster," more generally known as 
Whitehall, and greatly enlarged it. He also obtained an 
Act of Parliament enacting that " the entire space between 
Charing Cross and the Sanctuary at Westminster, from the 
Thames on the east side to the park wall westward, should 

• Cavendish's "Life of "Wolsey." * Henry VIII., act i. sc. 4. 



204 WALKS IN LONDON. 

from henceforth be deemed the King's whole Palace of 
Westminster." He erected buildings — a tennis-court, cock- 
pit, &c. — along the whole southern side of the Park, and 
formed a vast courtyard by the erection of two gates, 
the Whitehall Gate and the King Street Gate, over the 
highway leading to Westminster. The first of these gates, 
which stood on the Charing Cross side of the present Ban- 
queting House, was a noble work of Holbein, " built with 
bricks of two colours, glazed, and disposed in a tesselated 
fashion." * It was embattled at the top, and adorned with 
eight terra-cotta medallions of noble Italian workman ship. -f 
This gate was pulled down in 1750 : the Duke of Cum- 
berland intended to have rebuilt it at the end of the Long 
Avenue at Windsor, but never carried out his idea. The 
King Street Gate, which had dome-capped turrets at the 
sides, was pulled down in 1723. 

Henry VIII. began at Whitehall the Royal Gallery of 
pictures which was continued by Charles I. Holbein had 
rooms in the palace and a pension of 200 florins. It was 
" in his closet, at Whitehall, being St. Paul's day " (Jan. 25, 
1533), that Henry was married by Dr. Rowland Lee, 
afterwards Bishop of Chester, to Anne Boleyn (for whom 
he had previously obtained Suffolk House as a near resi- 
dence) in the presence of only three witnesses, one of whom 
was Henry Norris, Groom of the Chamber, afterwards a 
fellow-victim with her upon the scaffold. From the windows 
of the great gallery which Henry VIII. built on the site of 
the present Horse Guards, overlooking the Tilt- Yard, he 
reviewed 15,000 armed citizens in May, 1539, when an inva- 

* Pennant's " Hist, of London," p. 93. 

t Three of these— Henry VII., Henry VIII., and Bishop Fisher— are at Hatfield 
Priory, near \V itham, in Essex. Two are at Hampton Court. 



I 



WHITEHALL, 205 

sion of England was threatened by the Catholic sovereigns. 
And at Whitehall he died, Jan. 28, 1546. 

** When the physician^ announced to those in attendance on the 
sovereign that his hour of departure was at hand, they shrank from the 
pain of incurring the last ebulHtion of his vindictive temper by warning 
him of the awful change that awaited him. Sir Anthony Denny was 
the only person who had the courage to inform the king of his real 
state. He approached the bed, and leaning over it, told him ' that all 
human help was now in vain ; and that it was meet for him to review 
his past life, and seek for God's mercy through Christ.' Henry, who 
was uttering loud cries of pain and impatience, regarded him with a 
stem look, and asked, ' What judge had sent him to pass this sentence 
upon him.' ' Your grace's physicians,' Denny replied. When these 
physicians next approached the royal patient to offer him medicine, 
he repelled them in these words : * After the judges have once passed 
sentence on a criminal, they have no more to do with him ; therefore 
begone ! ' It was then suggested that he should confer with some of 
his divines. ♦ I will see none but Cranmer,' replied the king, ' and not 
him as yet. Let me repose a little, and as I find myself, so shall I 
determine.' . . . Before the archbishop entered, Henry was speech- 
less. Cranmer besought him to testify by some sign his hope in the 
saving mercy 01 Christ ; the king regarded him steadily for a moment, 
wrung his hand, and expired." — Strickland' s Life of Katherine Parr. 

In the next two reigns Whitehall was the scene of few 
especial events, though it was from hence that Mary I. set 
forth to her coronation by water, with her sister Elizabeth 
bearing the crown before her. Hence also on Palm Sun- 
day, 1554, Elizabeth was sent to the Tower, for an imagi- 
nary share in Sir Thomas Wyatt's conspiracy. Here, on 
Nov. 13, 1555, died Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester, his 
last words being, " I have sinned ; I have not wept with 
Peter." 

With Elizabeth, Whitehall again became the scene of 
festivities. Hence she rode in her robes to open her first 
Parliament. In the Great Gallery, built by her father, she 



206 WALKS IN LONDON. 

received the Speaker and the House of Commons, who came 
"to move her grace to marriage," The Queen's passion 
for tournaments was indulged with great magnificence in 
1 58 1, before the commissioners who came to urge her to a 
marriage with the Due d'Anjou. She seated herself with 
her ladies in a gallery overhanging the Tilt-Yard, to which 
was given the name of *' The Fortresse of Perfect Beautie." 
This was stormed by a number of knights singing the Chal- 
lenge of Desire — "a delectable song" — and by a cannonade of 
sweet powders and waters. The assailants eventually were 
attacked by the "Defenders of Beauty," with whom they 
held a regular tournament, and overwhelmed by whom they 
confessed their " degeneracy and unworthiness in making 
Violence accompany Desire." Elizabeth continued to be 
devoted to masques to her last years, and at sixty-seven, 
when Hentzner describes her as having a wrinkled face, 
little eyes, a hooked nose, and black teeth, would still 
" have solemn dancing," and herself " rise up and dance." * 
Hither, March 24, 1603, the great Queen's corpse was 
brought, " covered up," from her favourite pa 'ace of Rich- 
mond, where she died. 

*' The Queen did come by watc* c Whitehall, 
The oars at every stroke di'' ears let fall." f 

Here it lay in state till its interment ; and here, while six 
ladies were watching round her coffin through the night, 
" her body burst with such a crack, that it splitted the wood, 
lead, and cere-cloth ; whereupon, the next day she was fain 
to be new trimmed up." \ 

It was from " the Orchard " at Whitehall that the Lords 

* Sidney Papers. + Camden's " Remains," p. 524. 

% Lady Southwell's MS. 



WHITEHALL, 207 

G. the Council sent a messenger to James I. to acquaint 
him with the Queen's death and his own accession, and on 
May 7, 1603, he arrived to take possession of the palace ; 
and in the garden, a few days afterwards, he knighted 
three hundred gentlemen. It was in this garden, also, that 
Lord Mounteagle first told the Earl of Salisbury of the Gun- 
powder Plot. From the cellar of the House of Lords 
Guy Fawkes was dragged for examination to the bed- 
chamber of James I. at Whitehall, and there being asked 
by one of the King's Scottish favourites what he had 
intended to do with so many barrels of gunpowder, replied, 
" One thing I meant to do was to blow Scotchmen back to 
Scotland." 

Ben Jonson first became known as a poet in the reign of 
James I., and, to celebrate Prince Charles being made Duke 
of York and a Knight of the Bath at four years old, his 
Masque of Blackness was acted by the Court in White- 
hall, Queen Anne of Denmark and her ladies being painted 
black, as the daughters of Niger. " A most glorious maske " 
and many other pageants celebrated the creation of Prince 
Henry as Prince of Wales in June, 16 10. At Whitehall, 
also, while still wearing deep mourning for this her eldest 
brother, the Princess Elizabeth was married (Dec. 27, 161 2) 
to the Elector Palatine, commonly known as the " Palsgrave." 
Another marriage which was celebrated here with great 
magnificence (Dec. 261, 161 3) was that of the king's favourite, 
Robert Carr, Earl of Somerset, with the notorious Frances 
Howard, Countess of Essex. 

James I. rebuilt the *' old rotten slight-builded Ban- 
queting House " of Elizabeth in 1608, but this building 
was destroyed by tire in 16 19. The present Banqueting 



fl08 WALKS IN LONDON. 

House was then begun by Inigo Jones, and completed in 
1622, forming only the central portion of one wing in his 
immense design for a new palace, which, if completed, 
would have been the finest in the world. The masonry is 
by a master-mason, Nicholas Stone, several of whose works 
we have seen in other parts of London.* " Little did 
James think that he was raising a pile from which his son 
was to step from the throne to a scaffold."! The i^lan of 
Inigo Jones would have covered 24 acres, and one may best 
judge of its intended size by comparison with other build- 
ings. Hampton Court covers 8 acres, St. James's Palace 
4 acres, Buckingham Palace 2^ acres. | It would have been 
as large as Versailles, and larger than the Louvre. Inigo 
Jones received only 8^. 4^. a day while he was employed 
at Whitehall, and ^£^6 per annum for house-rent. The 
huge palace always remained unfinished. 

" Whitehall, the palace of our English kings, which one term'd a 
good hypocrite, promising less than it performeth, and more conve- 
nient within than comely Avithout ; to which the nursery of St. James's 
was an appendant." — Fuller's Worthies. 

Whitehall attained its greatest splendour in the reign of 
Charles I. 

" During the prosperous state of the King's affairs, the pleasures of 
the Court were carried on with much taste and magnificence. Poetry, 
painting, music, and architecture were all called in to make them 
rational amusements : and I have no doubt that the celebrated festivals 
ot Louis the Fourteenth were copied from the shows exhibited at 
Whitehall, in its time the most polite court in Europe. Ben Jonson 
was the laureate, Inigo Jones the inventor of the decorations ; Laniere 

• He was "payed four shillings and tenpence the day." See bu own notes, 
published by W'alpole. 
+ Pennant. 
% Timbs, '* Curiosities of London." 



WHITEHALL. 209 

and Ferabosco composed the symphonies ; the King, the Queen, and 

the young nobility danced in the interludes." — WalpoWs Works, 
iii. 271. 

The masque of Comus was one of those acted here be- 
fore the king ; but Charles was so afraid of the pictures in 
the Banqueting House being injured by the number of 
wax lights which were used, that he built for the purpose a 
boarded room called the " King's Masking House," after- 
wards destroyed by the Parliament. The gallery towards 
Privy Garden was used for the king's collection of pictures, 
afterwards either sold or burnt. The Banqueting House 
was the scene of hospitalities almost boundless. 

"There were daily at his (Charles's) court, eighty-six tables, well 
furnished each meal ; whereof the King's table had twenty-eight 
dishes ; the Queen's twenty-four ; four other tables, sixteen dishes 
each ; three other, ten dishes ; twelve other, seven dishes ; seventeen 
other, five dishes ; three other, four ; thirty-two had three ; and thirteen 
had each two ; in all about five hundred dishes each meal, with bread, 
beer, wine, and all other things necessary. There was spent yearly in 
the King's house, of gross meat, fifteen hundred oxen ; seven thou- 
sand sheep ; twelve hundred calves ; three hundred porkers ; four hun- 
dred young beefs ; six thousand eight hundred lambs ; thtee hundred 
flitches of bacon ; and twenty-six boars. Also one hundred and forty 
dozen of geese ; two hundred and fifty dozen of capons ; four hundred 
and seventy dozen of hens ; seven hundred and fifty dozen of pullets ; 
fourteen hundred and seventy dozen of chickens ; for bread, three 
hundred and sixty-four thousand bushels of wheat ; and for drink, six 
hundred tons of wine and seventeen hundred tons of beer ; together 
with fish and fowl, fruit and spice, proportionably." — Present State of 
London, 168 1. 

The different accounts of Charles I.'s execution intro- 
duce us to several names of the rooms in the old 
palace. We are able to follow him through the whole of 
the last scenes of the 30th of January, 1648. When he 
arrived, having walked from St. James's, *' the King went up 

VOL. II. P 



2IO WALKS IN LONDON. 

the stairs leading to the Long Gallery" of Henry VIII., and 
so to the west side of the palace. In the " Horn Chamber " 
he was given up to the officers who held the warrant for his 
execution. Then he passed on to the " Cabinet Chamber," 
looking upon Privy Garden. Here, the scaffold not being 
ready, he prayed and conversed with Bishop Juxon, ate 
some bread, and drank some claret. Several of the Puritan 
clergy knocked at the door and offered to pray with bim, 
but he said that they had prayed against him too often for 
him to wish to pray with them in his last moments. Mean- 
while, in a small distant room, Cromwell was signing the 
order to the executioner, and workmen were employed in 
breaking a passage through the west wall of the Banqueting 
House, that the warrant for the execution might be carried 
out which ordained it to be held " in the open street before 
Whitehall." 

" The reason for breaking through the wall is obvious. Had 
Charles passed through one of the lower windows, the scaifold must 
necessarily have been so low that it would have been on a level with 
the heads of the people, a circumstance, for many evident reasons, to 
be carefully avoided ; while, on the other hand, had he passed through 
one of the upper windows, the height would have been so great that 
no one could have witnessed the scene except those who were imme- 
diately on the scaffold." — Jesse, Memorials of London. 

When Colonel Hacker knocked at the door of the 
" Cabinet Chamber," the king stretched out his hands to 
Bishop Juxon and his faithful attendant Herbert, which 
they kissed, falling upon their knees and weeping. The 
king himself assisted the old bishop to rise. Then, says 
Herbert, " the king was led along all the galleries and 
Banqueting House, and there was a pas^aje broken through 
the wall, by which the king passed to the scaffold." Below, 



WHITEHALL, 211 

in the court between the two gates, through which passed 
the highway to Westminster, were vast crowds of spectators, 
while others stood upon the opposite roofs ; amongst 
whom the aged Archbishop Usher was led up to have 
a last sight of his royal master, but fainted when he 
beheld him. The regiments of foot and horse drawn up 
around the scaffold prevented the people from hearing the 
final words of the king, which were consequently addressed 
to those immediately around him. He declared his inno- 
cence of the crimes laid to his charge, and prayed to God 
with St. Stephen for forgiveness to his murderers. He said 
to the Bishop, " 1 go from a corruptible to an incorruptible 
crown, where no disturbance can be, no disturbance in the 
world," and gave him his George, with the single word 
** Remember." Then, after praying awhile, he laid h>s 
neck upon the block, and when he made the sign which 
was agreed upon, by stretching out his hands, the execu- 
tioner at one blow severed his head from his body, and 
held it up, saying, " Behold the head of a traitor." But " a 
universal groan was uttered by the people (as if by one 
consent), such as never was heard before." * 

Almost from the time of Charles's execution Cromwell 
occupied rooms in the Cockpit, where the Treasury is now, 
but soon after he was installed " Lord Protector of the 
Commonwealth " (Dec. i6, 1653), he took up his abode in 
the royal apartments, with his " Lady Protectress " and his 
family. Cromwell's puritanical tastes did not make him 
averse to the luxury he found there, and, when Evelyn 
visited Whitehall after a long interval in 1656, he found it 
"very glorious and well furnished." But the Protectress 

Ellis's " Letters," vol. iii. 333. 



213 WALKS IN LONDON, 

could not give up her habits of nimble housewifery, and 
" employed a surveyor to make her some Httle labyrinths 
and trap-stairs, by which she might, at all times, unseen, 
pass to and fro, and come unawares upon her servants, and 
keep them vigilant in their places and honest in the dis- 
charge thereof." * With Cromwell in Whitehall lived 
Milton, as his Latin Secretary. Here the Protector's 
daughters, Mrs. Rich and Mrs, Claypole, were married, and 
here Oliver Cromwell died (Sept. 3, 1658) while a great 
storm was raging which tore up the finest elms in the Park, 
and hurled them to the ground, beneath the northern 
windows of the palace. 

" His dying groans, his last breath, shakes our isle, 
And trees uncut fall for his funeral pile ; 
About his palace their broad roots are toss'd 
Into the air." f 

In the words of Hume, Cromwell upon his death-bed 
*' assumed more the character of a mediator, interceding for 
his people, than that of a criminal, whose atrocious violation 
of social duty had, from every tribunal, human and divine, 
merited the severest vengeance." Having inquired ol 
Godwin, the divine who attended him, whether a person 
who had once been in a state of grace could afterwards be 
damned, and being assured it was impossible, he said, 
*' Then I am safe, for I am sure that I was once in a state 
of grace." 

Richatd Cromwell continued to reside in Whitehall till 
his resignation of the Protectorate. 

On his birthday, the 29th of May, 1660, Charles II. 

• The Court and Kitchen of Elizabeth Ciomwell, 1664. 
♦ Waller's Poems. 



WHITEHALL. 213 

returned to Whitehall. The vast labyrinthine chambers 
of the palace were soon filled to overflowing by his crowded 
court. The queen's rooms were facing the river to the 
east of the Water Gate. Prince Rupert had rooms in the 
Stone Gallery, which ran along the south side of Privy 
Gardens, beyond the main buildings of the palace, and 
beneath him were the apartments of the king's mistresses, 
Barbara Palmer, Countess of Castlemaine, afterwards 
Duchess of Cleveland, and Louise de Querouaille, Duchei.b 
of Portsmouth. The rooms of the latter, who first came to 
England with Henrietta, Duchess of Orleans, to entice 
Charles II. into an alliance with Louis XIV., and whose 
*' childish, simple, baby-face " is described by Evelyn, were 
three times rebuilt I10 please her, having " ten times the 
richness and glory " of the queen's.* Nell Gwynne did not 
live in the palace, though she was one of Queen Catherine's 
Maids of Honour ! At times, when the river was at high 
tide, the water would flood the apartments of these ladies. 
Thus it happened in the kitchen of Lady Castlemaine when 
the king was coming to sup with her. The cook came to 
tell her that the chine of beef could not be roasted, for the 
water had put the fire out. " Zounds," replied the lady, 
" you may burn the palace down, but the beef must be 
roasted," so "it was carried to Mrs. Sarah's husband's, and 
there roasted." f Just before Queen Catherine of Braganza's 
arrival the king requested the Lords and Commons "to 
put that compliment upon her that she might not find 
Whitehall surrounded by water." 

The taste for gardening which Charles brought back from 
IlolUnd was exemplified in the decorations of the Privy 

• Evelyn. t Pepya. 



314 IVALKS IN LONDON. 

Garden. It contained the famous dial, made for him 
when Prince of Wales by Professor Gunter, and the 
defacement of which by a drunken nobleman led to the 
lines of Andrew Marvel — 

" This place for a dial was too insecure, 

Since a guard and a garden could not it defend ; 
For so near to the Court they will never endure 

Any witness to show how their time they misspend." 

It was from Whitehall that one of the king's mistresses, 
"La belle Stuart," eloped (March, 1667) with the Duke oi 
Richmond. Pepys has left us descriptions of the balls at 
Whitehall at this time, how the room was crammed with fine 
ladies, " to whom the King and Queen came in, with the 
Duke and Duchess of York and all the great ones ; " and, 
" after seating themselves, the King takes out the Duchess 
of York, and the Duke the Duchess of Buckingham ; the 
Duke of Monmouth my Lady Castlemaine, and so other 
lords other ladies, and they danced the brantle. After that, 
the King led a lady a single coranto ; and then the rest of 
the lords, one after another, other ladies; very noble it 
was, and great pleasure to see." The last scenes of this 
reign of pleasure at Whitehall are described by Evelyn — 

"I can never forget the inexpressible luxury and profaneness, gaming, 
dissoluteness, and, as it were, total forgetfulness of God (it being 
Sunday evening), which this day se'night I was witness of; the King 
sitting and toying with his concubines, Portsmouth, Cleveland, and 
Mazarine &c., a French boy singing love-songs in that glorious gallery, 
whilst about twenty of the great courtiers and other dissolute persons 
were at basset round a large table, a bank of at least ^2000 in gold 
before them, upon which two gentlemen who were with me made 
reflections with astonishment. Six days after all was in the dust." 

Charles died in Whitehall on Feb. 6, 1684. With his 
successor the character of the palace changed. James IL, 



WHITEHALL, 215 

who continued to make it his principal residence, established 
a Roman Catholic chapel there. 

" March 5, 1685. To my great griefe I saw the new pulpit set up in 
the Popish Oratorie at Whitehall, for the Lent preaching, masse being 
publicly said, and the Romanists swarming at Court with greater con- 
fidence than had ever been scene in England since the Reformation." 
— Evelyn. 

It was from Whitehall that Queen Mary Beatrice made 
her escape on the night of Dec. 9, 1688. The adventure 
was confided to the Count de Lauzun and his friend M. de 
St. Victor, a gentleman of Avignon. The queen on that 
terrible evening vainly entreated to be allowed to remain 
and share the perils of her husband ; he assured her that it 
was absolutely necessary that she should precede him, and 
that he would follow her in twenty-four hours. The king 
and queen went to bed as usual to avoid suspicion, but rose 
soon after, when the queen put on a disguise provided by 
St. Victor. The royal pair then descended to the rooms of 
Madame de Labadie, where they found Lauzun, with the 
infant Prince James and his two nurses. The king, turning 
to Lauzun, said, " I confide my queen and my son to your 
care: all must be hazarded to convey them with the utmost 
speed to France." Lauzun then gave his hand to the queen 
to lead her away, and, followed by the two nurses with the 
child, they crossed the Great Gallery, and descended by a 
back staircase and a postern gate to Privy Gardens. At the 
garden gate a coach was waiting, the queen entered with 
Lauzun, the nurses, and her child, who slept the whole 
time, St. Victor mounted by the coachman, and they drove 
to the " Horse Ferry " at Westminster, where a boat was 
waiting in which they crossed to Lambeth. 



2i6 WALKS IN LONDON. 

On the nth the Dutch troops had entered London, 
and James, having commanded the gallant Lord Craven, 
who was prepared to defend the palace to the utmost, 
to draw off the guard which he commanded, escaped 
himself in a boat from the water-entrance of the palace at 
three o'clock in the morning. At Feversham his flight was 
arrested, and he returned amid bonfires, bell-ringing, and 
every symptom of joy from the fickle populace. Once 
more he slept in Whitehall, but in the middle of the night 
was aroused by order of his son-in-law, and hurried forcibly 
down the river to Rochester, whence, on Dec. 23, he 
escaped to France. On the 25th of November the Prin- 
cess Anne had declared against her unfortunate father, by 
absconding at night by a back staircase from her lodgings in 
the Cockpit, as the north-western angle of the palace was 
called, which looked on St. James's Park. Compton, Bishop 
of London, was waiting for her with a hackney coach, and she 
fled to his house in Aldersgate Street. Mary IL arrived in 
the middle of February, and " came into Whitehall, jolly as 
to a wedding, seeming quite transported with joy." 

•' She rose early in the morning, and, in her undress, before her 
women were up, went about from room to room, to see the con- 
veiiiences of Whitehall. She slept in the same bed where the queen 
of James II. had slept, and within a night or two sat down to basset. 
She smiled upon all, and talked to everybody, so that no change 
seemed to have taken place at Court as to queens, save that infinite 
throngs of people came to see her, and that she went to our prayers. 
Her demeanour was censured by many. She seems to be of a good 
temper, but takes nothing to heart." — Evelyn. Diary, 

But the glories of Whitehall were now over; William IIL, 
occupied with his buildings at Hampton Court and Ken- 
sington, never cared to live there, and i\Taiy doubtless stayed 



BANQUETING HOUSE, WHITEHALL, 217 

there as little as possible, feeling oppressed by the recollec- 
tions of her youth spent there with an indulgent father whom 
she had cruelly wronged, and a stepmother whom she had 
once loved with sisterly as well as filial affection, and from 
whom she had parted with passionate grief on her marriage, 
only nine years before. The Stone Gallery and the late 
apartments of the royal mistresses in Whitehall were burnt 
down in 169 1, and the whole edifice was almost totally 
destroyed by fire through the negligence of a Dutch maid- 
servant in 1697. 

The principal remaining fragment of the palace is the 
Banquetiftg House of Inigo Jones, from which Charles I. 
passed to execution. Built in the dawn of the style of 
Wren, it is one of the most grandiose examples of that 
style, and is perfect alike in symmetry and proportion. 
That it has no entrance apparent at first sight is due to the 
fact that it was only intended as a portion of a larger 
building. In the same way we must remember that the 
appearance of two stories externally, while the whole is one 
room, is due to the Banqueting House being only one of 
four intended blocks, of which one was to be a chapel 
surrounded by galleries, and the other two divided into two 
tiers of apartments. The Banqueting House was turned 
into a chapel by George I., but has never been consecrated, 
and the aspect of a hall is retained by the ugly false red 
curtains which surround the interior of the building. It 
is called the Chapel Royal of Whitehall, is served by the 
chaplains of the sovereign, and is one of the dreariest 
places of worship in London. The ceiling is still decorated 
with canvas pictures by Rubens (1635) representing the 
apotheosis of James I. The painter received ;£3,ooo for 



2i8 WALKS IN LONDON. 

tliese works. The walls were to have been painted by 
Vandyke with the History of the Order of the Garter. 
'• What," says Walpole, " had the Banqueting House 
been if completed ? " * Over the entrance is a bronze bust 
of James I. attributed to Le Soeur. 

To this chapel the Seven Bishops came to return thanks 
immediately after their acquittal. It was St. Peter's Day, 
and it was remarked that the Epistle was singularly appro- 
priate, being part of the 1 2th chapter of the Acts, recording 
Peter's miraculous deliverance from prison. t Archbishop 
Tillotson (1694) was seized with paralysis here during 
Divine service on Sunday. \ *' He felt it coming on him ; 
but not thinking it decent to interrupt the Divine service, 
he neglected it too long." His death immediately preceded 
that of Queen Mary, who was greatly attached to him. 

The Weathercock on the north end of the Banqueting 

House is of historic interest, as having been placed there by 

James H., that he might watch from his chamber whether it 

was a wind which would bring the Dutch fleet to England. 

According as the wind blew from east or west, it was called 

a Popish or a Protestant wind. Hence the lines in the 

ballad of Lilibulero — 

" Oh, but why does he stay behind ? 
By my soul, 'tis a Protestant wind." 

The exterior of the Banqueting House has always been 
much studied by architects. A dirty little ragged chimney- 
sweeper was once found drawing its front in chalk upon the 
basement stones of the building itself, and begged with tears 

• Anecdotes of Painting. 
+ D'Oyley's " Life of Archbishop Sancroft." 

t Archbishop Whitgift had been similarly attacked with a fatal paralTtlo 
seizure at Whitehall. 



UMTED SERVICE MUSEUM. 219 

not to be exposed to his master. The gentleman who found 
him purchased his indentures and sent him to Rome to 
study, and he lived to make a large fortune as Isaac Ware 
the architect.* 

In a courtyard behind the Banqueting House is one of 
our best London statues, that of James II. by Grinling 
Gibbons. It was erected Dec. 31, 1686, at the expense of 
Tobias Rustat, a faithful page of the chamber to Charles II. 
and James II., who thus expended in their honour the 
money earned in their service. This statue was neither 
removed in the revolution of 1688, nor injured by the fire 
which destroyed the palace. 

In the wall adjoining Fife House in Whitehall Yard may 
still, or might lately, be seen the arch of the Gate which 
led to the Royal Stairs upon the river. On the left of 
the court is the Ujiited Service Institution^ with a small 
Museum^ containing examples of naval, military, and militia 
uniforms, models of ships, and weapons of all kinds. 
Amongst historic objects preserved here we may notice — 

The Sword of Cromwell at the siege of Drogheda. 

The Sword borne by General Wolfe at the siege of Quebec, Sept. 

13, 1751- 

The Dirk of Lord Nelson as a Midshipman, and the Sword with 
which he boarded the St. Joseph. 

Relics of Captain Cooke, including his chronometer, taken out again 
by Captain Bligh in 1787, and carried by the mutineers of the Bounty 
to Pitcaim's Island. 

Relics of Sir John Franklin's Arctic Expedition, including the 
chronometers of the ships Erebus and Terror, which sailed May, 1845. 

Relics of the Crimean war, amid which many will look with interest 
on the stuffed form of " Bob," the dog of the Scots Fusilier Guards, 
which was present at Alma and Inkerman, and marched into London 
at the head of the regiment. 

• Builder, Feb. 5, 18-6. 



220 WALKS IN LONDON, 

To the east of ^ the Banqueting House is Scotland YarJj 
chiefly known now from its Police Office and Lost Property 
Office. It derives its name from having been a London 
residence for the Scottish kings. It was given to them in 
959 by King Edgar, when Kenneth III., coming to do 
homage for his kingdom, was enjoined to return every year 
" to assist in the forming of the laws." It remained in the 
hands of the Kings of Scotland till the rebellion of William 
of Scotland in the reign of Henry II. Afterwards it con- 
tinued to bear their name, and when Margaret, widow of 
James IV., slain at Flodden, was reconciled to her brother 
Henry VHI., after her second marriage with the Earl of 
Angus, she went to reside there. Scotland Yard had the 
immunities of a royal palace, and no one could be arrested 
for debt within its precincts. Milton, when he was Crom- 
well's Latin Secretary, resided in Scotland Yard. Other 
famous residents were Inigo Jones (who, with Nicholas 
Stone the sculptor, buried his money here during the 
Commonwealth) ; Sir John Denham the poet ; and Sir 
Christopher Wren. Sir John Vanbrugh the architect built 
here, from the ruins of the palace, the semi- Grecian semi- 
Gothic house satirized by Swift in the lines— 

" Now Poets from all quarters ran, 
To see the house of brother Van ; 
Look'd high and low, walk'd often round, 
But no such house was to be found : 
One asks a waterman hard by, 
* Where may the Poet's palace lie ? ' 
Another of the Thames enquires 
If he has seen its gilded spires ? 
At length they in the rubbish spy 
A thing resembling a Goose-pie.*^ 

It was in Scotland Yard that (in the time of James I. 



I 



THE HORSE GUARDS, 221 

Lord Herbert of Cherbury was attacked by Sir John Ayres 
and four ruffians, who tried to assassinate him, on a ground- 
less suspicion of his being the favoured lover of Lady Ayres. 
He so gallantly defended himself that, though wounded, he 
put all his assailants to flight. 

Beyond the Banqueting House, a row of houses facing 
the river still commemorates, in its name, the Privy Gardens 
where Latimer preached in a pulpit to Edward VI., who 
listened to him from a window of the palace, and where 
Pepys, in a different age, said that " it did him good " to look 
at Lady Castlemaine's "linen petticoats, laced with rich 
lace at the bottom."* 

In the last days of June, 1850, an anxious crowd were 
gathered before the gates of No. 4, Privy Gardens to read 
the bulletins which announced the fluctuations in the health 
of Sir Robert Peel, who was carried home after his fatal 
accident on Constitution Hill, and expired in the dining- 
room of this house. 

Opposite Whitehall is, first, the Admiralty Office, built by 
T. Ripley, 1726, on the site of Wallingford House, on the 
roof of which Archbishop Usher fainted on seeing Charles I. 
led forth to the scaff"old. It has a screen by Adam, with 
ornaments supposed to be typical of the duties of the place. 
There is a fine portrait of Nelson here, which was painted 
at Naples by Leonardo Guzzardi for Sir William Hamilton 
in 1799. 

The next building is the Horse Guards, so called from 
the troop constantly on guard here, and first established 
here in an edifice overlooking the Tilt- Yard, " to watch and 
restrain the prentices from overawing Parliament" The 

• Diary, 2ist May, 1662. 



222 



WALKS IN LONDON, 



building was erected by Vardy in 1753. Two splendid 
cuirassed and helmeted figures sit like statues on their horses 
under the little stone pavilions on either side the gate, and 
are relieved every two hours, while two others on foot, 




On Guard at the Horse Guards. 



as Taine describes, "posent avec majesty devant le? 
gamins. " * The archway in the centre is the royal 
entrance to St. James's Park, by the ancient Tilt- Yard, 
now the parade-ground. It was from the Horse Guards 

* Notes sur rAngleterre 



THE FOREIGN OFFICE. 



223 



that the funeral procession of the Duke of WelHngton set 
forth. 

The next line of buildings, surmounted by a row of the 
meaningless tea-urns beloved by unimaginative architects, 
is the Treasury^ which was first established in the Cockpit 
of Whitehall by Charles II., and has remained there ever 
since. It occupies the site of the apartment in the palace 
where General Monk, Duke of Albemarle, died, Jan. 4, 1670, 
and his low-born duchess, Nan Clarges, in the same month. 
It was from hence also that Anne escaped, and here 
Guiscard tried to stab Harley, Earl of Oxford, March 8, 
17 1 1, but fell under the wounds of Lord Paulet and Mr. 
St. John. The present buildings, erected by Sir C. Barry, 
1846-7, include the Board of Trade, the Home Office, 
and the Privy Council Office. 

In Downing Street (named from Sir G. Downing, Secre- 
tary of State in 1668) the public offices have now swallowed 
up all the private residences. 

There is a fascination in the air of this little cul-de-sac : an hour's 
inhalation of its atmosphere affects some men with giddiness, others 
with blindness, and very frequently with the most oblivious boastful- 
ness." — I'heodore Hook. 

The south side of Downing Street is formed by the 
magnificent pile of modern Italian buildings by Sir 
Gilbert Scott, erected 1868 — 73, to include the Home 
Office, Foreign Office, Colonial Office, and East India Office, 
The Foreign Office, presided over by the Secretary of 
State for Foreign Affairs, is at the north-west corner of the 
building, with a grand staircase : cabinet councils are fre- 
quently held here. The Colonial Office, facing Parliament 
Street, is presided over by the Secretary of State for the 



224 WALKS IN LONDON, 

Colonies. Lord Nelson and the Duke of Wellington had 
their only meeting in a waiting-room of the old building. 
The affairs of the India Office were formerly transacted in 
the East India House in Leadenhall Street, but were 
transferred to the Crown when the East India Company 
came to an end by Act of Parliament, Sept. i, 1858, and 
are now managed by a council of twelve members under a 
Secretary of State. Facing Downing Street is the Exchequer , 
so called from a four-cornered table covered with parti- 
coloured cloth, which heralds call chequy, round which the 
old court was held. 

The stately modern house with high roofs, on the left of 
Whitehall, is Montagu House* built in 1863 by the Duke of 
Buccleuch, upon the site of an old family mansion erected 
immediately after the Court had abandoned Whitehall. 
The house contains some magnificent Vandykes and one 
of the noblest collections of Historical Miniatures in 
England, beautifully arranged in large frames on the walls 
of the principal rooms. The important English miniatures 
begin with Henry VIII., Catherine of Arragon, Catherine 
Howard, and those who surrounded them. Elizabeth is 
represented over and over again, with almost all the leading 
characters of her age. The Stuart Kings follow, with 
their wives, mistresses, courtiers, and the chief literary men 
of their time ; and the reigns of the Georges are represented 
with equal completeness. Many cases are devoted to the 
Foreign miniatures, of which most are French, and belong 
to the reigns of Louis XIV., XV., and XVI. Amongst 
the pictures especially deserving notice are — 

In the Duke's Sitting Room^— 

* Montagu House is not shown to the public. 



MONTAGU HOUSE, KING STREET, 225 

Sir J. Reynolds. Lady Elizabeth Montagu, Duchess of Buccleuch 
— a most noble portrait. 

Lely. Lady Elizabeth Percy, Duchess of Northumberland [pb, 1 722), 
as a child, with a dog. 

Walker. Portrait of Oliver Cromwell. 

Dohson. Portrait of Thomas Hobbes. 

Drawing Room, 

Rembrandt. Portraits of Himself and his Mother. 

Z>. Tenters. The Harvest Field— at the artist's chateau of Perck. 

Vandefvelde. Shipping — a beautiful specimen of the master. 

Murillo. St. John and the Lamb. 

Andrea Mantegna. A Sibyl and Prophet — in monochrome. 

Rubens. The Watering Place. 

Music Room. 
Raffaelle. Fragment of a Cartoon. 

Dining Room, 

Vandyke. James Stuart, Duke of Richmond and Lennox* 

Vandyke, James Hamilton, Duke of Hamilton. 

Mengs. John, Marquis of Monthermer. 

Vandyke. Henry Rich, Earl of Holland. 

Vandyke. George Gordon, second Marquis of Huntly, 

Lely. Anna Maria Brudenel, Countess of Shrewsbury. 

Lely. Lady Dorothy Brudenel, Countess of Westmoreland. 

Richmond Terrace occupies the site of Richmond House 
(burnt 179 1 ), built by the Earl of Burlington for Charles, 
second Duke of Richmond. 

On the right is the turn into King Street^ now a by-way, 
but long the principal approach to Westminster, in which 
divers people were smothered when pressing to see Queen 
Elizabeth and her nobles ride to open Parliament. Here 
it was that Edmund Spenser the poet " died for lacke of 
bread," having refused twenty pieces of silver sent him by 
Lord Essex when it was too late, saying he was "sorry he 

VOL. IL Q 



2j6 



WALKS IN LONDON, 



had no time to spend them." Here lived Thomas Caiew, 
who wrote — 

" He that loves a rosy cheek, 
y Or a coral lip admires," &c. 

Here also, in a house now destroyed, near Blue Boar's 
Head Yard, resided Mrs. Cromwell, the anxious mother of 
the Protector, never happy unless she saw her son twice a 




Judge Jeffreys' House. 



day, and calling out, whenever she heard the report of a 
gun, " My son is shot." Oliver Cromwell was living here 
himself when Charles I. was carried in a sedan chair 
through the street to his trial in Westminster Hall, and 
hence, six months after the king's execution, he set off in 
his coach drawn by " six gallant Flanders mares," to his 
campaign in Ireland. It was down King Street that the 



JUDGE JEFFREYS' HOUSE. 227 

Protector's funeral passed from Whitehall to the Abbey, 
with his waxen effigy lying upon the coffin. 

Behind King Street is Delahay Street, where Judge Jeffi^eys 
lived in a house marked by its picturesque porch. It was 
the only house which was allowed to have a private entrance 
to the Park on the other side. To the left of Parliament 
Street is Cannon Row (originally Channel Row, from a 
branch of the Thames which once helped to make Thomey 
Island), where the widow of the Protector Somerset lived. 
Here is the Office of the Civil Service Commission. Dorset 
Court, opening from hence, formerly commemorated the 
birthplace of Anne Cliftbrd, " Pembroke, Dorset, and 
Montgomery." 

But we must hasten on, for down Parliament Street we 
look into a sunlit square, and beyond it rise, m a grim 
greyness which is scarcely enlivened by their lace-like fret- 
work, the wondrous buttresses of the most beautiful 
chapel in the world — that of Henry VII. in Westminster 
Abbey, 



CHAPTER VI. 

WESTMINSTER ABBEY.— I. 

THE first church on this site was built on the Isle of 
Thorns — " Thorney kland " — an almost insulated 
peninsula of dry sand and gravel, girt on one side by the 
Thames, and on the othei by the marshes formed by the 
little stream Eye,* which gave its name to Tyburn, before 
it fell into the river. Here Sebert, King of the East 
Saxons, who died in 6i6, having been baptized by Mellitus, 
is said to have founded a church, which he dedicated to 
St. Peter, either from an association with the great church 
in Rome, from which Augustine had lately come, or to 
balance his rival foundation in honour of St. Paul upon 
a neighbouring hill. Sulcard, the first historian of the 
Abbey, relates that on a Sunday night, bemg the eve ot 
the day on which the chuich was to be consecrated by 
Bishop Mellitus. Edric the fisherman was watching his nets 
by the bank of the island. On the opposite shore he saw 
a gleaming light, and, when he approached it in his boat, 
he found a venerable man, who desired to be ferried across 
the stream. Upon theii arrival at the island, the myste- 

* ['he Eye, now a sewer, still passes under New Bond Street, the Green Park 
and Buckingham Palace, to join the Thames near Vauxhall Bridge, 



FO UN DA TION OF THE A BBE Y, 229 

nous stranger landed, and proceeded to the church, c:\llmg 
up on his way two springs of water, which still exist, by two 
blows of his staff. Then a host of angels miraculously 
appeared, and held candles which lighted him as he went 
through all the usual forms of a church consecration, while 
throughout the service other angels were seen ascending 
and descending over the church, as in Jacob's vision. When 
the old man returned to the boat, he bade Edric tell 
Mellitus that the church was already consecrated by St. 
Peter, who held the keys of heaven, and promised that a 
plentiful supply of fish would never fail him as a fisherman 
it he ceased to work on a Sunday, and did not forget to 
bear a tithe of that which he caught to the Abbey of West- 
minster. 

On the following day, when Mellitus came to consecrate 
the church, Edric presented himself and told his story, 
showing, in proof of it, the marks of consecration in the 
traces of the chrism, the crosses on the doors, and the drop- 
pings of the angelic candles. The bishop acknowledged 
that his work had b^en already done by saintly hands, and 
changed the name of the place from Thorney to Westmin- 
ster, and in recollection of the story of Edric a tithe of 
fish was paid by the Thames fishermen to the Abbey till 
1382,* the bearer having a right to sit that day at the 
prior's table, and to ask for bread and ale from the cel- 
larman. 

Beside the church of Sebert arose the palace of the 
Anglo-Saxon monarchs, to which it served as a chapel, as 

• In 1231 the monks of Westminster went to law with the vicar of Rotherkithe 
for the tithe of salmon caught in his parish, protesting that it had been granted 
by St. Peter to their Abbey at its consecration. — Flete. 



230 WALKS IN LONDON. 

St. George's does to Windsor. It is connected with many 
of the legends of that prcturesque age. Here, while he was 
attending mass with Leofric of Mercia and his wife, the 
famous Godiva, Edward the Confessor announced that he saw 
the Saviour appear as a luminous child. By the wayside 
between the palace and the chapel sate Michael, the crip- 
pled Irishman, who assured Hugolin, the chamberlain, that 
St. Peter had promised his cure if the king would himself 
bear him on his shoulders to the church, upon which 
Edward bore him to the altar, where he was received by 
Godric, the sacristan, and walked away whole. 

Whilst he was an exile Edward had vowed that if he 
returned to England in safety he would make a pilgrimage 
to Rome. This promise, after his coronation, he was most 
anxious to perform, but his nobles refused to let him go, 
and the pope (Leo IX.) released him from his vow, on 
contlition of his founding or restoring a church in honour 
of St. Peter. Then, to an ancient hermit near Worcester, 
St. Peter appeared, " bright and beautiful, like to a clerk," 
and bade him tell the king that the church to .which he 
must devote himself, and where he must establish a Bene- 
dictine monastery, was no other than the ancient minster 
of Thorney, which he knew so well. 

Eihvard, henceforth devoting a tenth of his whole sub- 
stance to the work, destroyed the old church, and rebuilt 
it from the foundation, as the " Collegiate Church of St. 
Peter at Westminster." It was the first cruciform church 
erected in England,* and was of immense size for the age, 
covenng the whole of the ground occupied by the present 
building. The foundation was laid in 1049, ^^^ the 

• " Novo corapositionis genere." — Matthew Paris. 



BUILDING OF THE ABBEY. 23 1 

church was consecrated December 28, 1065, eight days 
before the death of the king. Of this church and monas- 
tery of the Confessor nothing remains now but the Chapel 
of the Pyx, the lower part of the Refectory underlying the 
Westminster schoolroom, part of the Dormitory, and the 
whole of the lower walls of the South Cloister ; but the 
Bayeux tapestry still shows us in outline the church of 
the Confessor as it existed in its glory. 

The second founder of the Abbey was Henry III., who 
pulled ( o vn most of the Confessor's work, and from 1245 
to 1272 devoted himself to rebuilding. The material he 
employed was first the green sandstone, which has given 
the name of God-stone to the place in Surrey whence it 
came, and afterwards Caen stone. The portions which 
remain to us from his time are the Confessor's Chapel, the 
side aisles and their chapels, and the choir and transepts. 
The work of Henry was continued by his son Edward I., who 
built the eastern portion of the nave, and it was carried on 
by different abbots till the great west window was erected 
by Abbot Estney in 1498. Meantime, Abbot Littlington, in 
1380, had added the College Hall, the Abbot's House, 
Jerusalem Chamber, and part of the cloisters. In 1502 
Henry VII. pulled down the Lady Chapel, and built his 
beautiful Perpendicular chapel instead. The western 
towers were only completed from designs of Sir Christopher 
Wren (17 14), under whom much of the exterior was 
refaced with Oxfordshire stone, and its original details 
mercilessly defaced and pared down. 

"The Abbey Church formerly arose a magnificent apex to a royal 
palace, surrounded by its own greater and lesser sanctuaries and 
almonries ; its bell-towers, chapels, prisons, gate-houses, boundary- 



232 WALKS IN LONDON, 

walls, and a train of other buildings, of which at the present day we 
can scarcely form an idea. In addition to all the land around it, 
extending from the Thames to Oxford Street, and from Vauxhall 
Bridge Road to the church of St. Mary-le- Strand, the Abbey possessed 
97 towns and villages, 17 hamlets, and 216 manors." — BardwelVs 
Ancient and Modern Westminster. 

At the dissolution Abbot Benson was rewarded for his 
facile resignation by being made dean of the college which 
was established in place of the monastery. In 1541 a 
bishopric of Westminster was formed, with Middlesex as a 
diocese, but it was of short existence, for Mary refounded 
the monastery, and Elizabeth turned her attention entirely 
to the college, which she re-established under a dean and 
twelve secular canons. 

No one can understand Westminster Abbey, and few can 
realise its beauties, in a single visit. Too many tombs 
will produce the same satiety as too many pictures. There 
can be no advantage, and there will be less pleasure, in 
filling the brain with a hopeless jumble in which kings and 
statesmen, warriors, ecclesiastics, and poets, are tossing 
about together. Even those who give the shortest time 
to their London sight-seeing should not pay less than three 
visits to the Abbey. On the first, unwearied by detail, let 
them have the luxury of enjoying the architectural beauties 
of the place, with a general view of the interior, the chapter- 
house, cloisters, and their monastic surroundings. On the 
second let them study the glorious chapels which surround 
the choir, and which contain nearly all the tombs of anti- 
quarian or artistic interest. On the third let them labour 
as far as they can through the mass of monuments which 
crowd the transepts and nave, which are often mere ceno- 
taphs, and which almost always derive their only interest 



I 



EXTERIOR OF THE ABBEY, 233 

from those they commemorate. These three visits may 
enable visitors to see Westminster Abbey, but it will require 
many more to know it — visits at all hours of the day to 
drink in the glories of the light and shadow in the one 
great church of England which retains its beautiful ancient 
colouring undestroyed by so-called " restoration " — visits 
employed in learning the way by which the minster 
has grown, arch upon arch, and monument upon monu- 
ment ; and other visits given to studying the epitaphs on 
the tombs, and considering the reminiscences they awaken. 

** Oft let me range the gloomy aisles alone — 
Sad luxury ! to vulgar minds unknown, 
Along the walls where speaking marbles show 
What worthies form the hallow'd mould below ; 
Proud names, who once the reins of empires held ; 
In arms who triumph'd, or in arts excell'd ; 
Chiefs, graced with scars, and prodigal of blood ; 
Stern patriots, who for sacred freedom stood ; 
Just men, by whom impartial laws were given ; 
And saints, who taught and led the way to heaven." 

Tickell, 

In approaching the Abbey from Parliament Street, the first 

portion seen is the richly decorated buttresses of Henr)' 

VII. 's Chapel. Then we emerge into the open square which 

still bears the name of Broad Sanctuary, and have the whole 

building rising before us. 

** That antique pile behold, 
Where royal heads receive the sacred gold : 
It gives them crowns, and does their ashes keep ; 
There made like gods, like mortals there they sleep, 
Making the circle ol their reign complete, 
These suns of empire, where they rise they set." 

Waller. 

The outline of the Abbey is beautifully varied and 

broken by St. Margaret's Church, which is not only 



234 WALKS IN LONDON, 

deeply interesting in itself, but is invaluable as presenting 
the greater edifice behind it in its true proportions. 
Facing us is the north transept, the front of which, with 
its statueless niches, beautiful rose-window, and its great 
triple entrance — imitated from French cathedrals — some- 
times called " Solomon's Porch," is the richest part of the 
building externally, and a splendid example of the Pointed 




x\t Westminster. 

Style. Beyond Wren's poor towers is the low line of grey 
wall which indicates the Jerusalem Chamber. 

Facing the Abbey, on the left, are Westminster Hall and 
the Houses of Parliament, which occupy the site of the 
ancient palace of our sovereigns. Leaving these and St. 
Margaret's for a later chapter, let us proceed at once to 
enter the Abbev. 



POETS' CORNER, 235 

The nave and transepts are open free ; the chapels surrounding the 
choir are shown on payment of 6d. 

Hours of Divine service, 7.45 A.M., lO A.M., and 3 P.M. From 
the first Sunday after Easter till the last Sunday in July there is a 
special evening service with a sermon in the nave at 7P.M. "Vox 
quidem dissona, sed luia religio " has been the maxim of Dean Stanley 
in his choice of the preachers for the sei vices. 

Ihree miles of hot water completely warm the Abbey in winter. 

Behind the rich lace-work of Henry VII.'s Chapel, and 
under one of the grand flying buttresses of the Chapter- 
House, through a passage hard by which Chaucer lived, we 
reach the door of the Poets' Corner, where Queen Caroline 
vainly knocked for admission to share in the coronation of 
her husband George IV. This is the door by which visitors 
generally enter the Abbey. 

•* The moment I entered Westminster Abbey I felt a kind of awe 
pervade my mind which I cannot describe ; the very silence seemed 
sacred." — Edmund Burke. 

*' On entering, the magnitude of the building breaks fully upon the 
mind. The eye gazes with wonder at clustered columns of gigantic 
dimensions, with arches springing from them to such an amazing 
height. It seems as if the awful nature of the place presses down upon 
the soul, and hushes the beholder into noiseless reverence. We feel 
that we are surrounded by the congregated bones of the great men ol 
past times, who have filled history with their deeds, and earth with 
their renown." — Washington Irving. 

" How reverend is the face of this tall pile, 
Whose ancient pillars rear their marble heads, 
To bear aloft its arch'd and ponderous roof, 
By its own weight made steadfast and immovable, 
Looking tranquillity ! " — Congreve. 

*'They dreamed not of a peiishable home 
Who thus could build. Be mine, in hours of fear 
Or grovelling thought, to seek a refuge here, 
And through the aisles of Westminster to roam, 
Where bubbles burst, and folly's dancing foam 
Alelts, if it cross the threshold." — IV. Wordsworth, 



236 WALKS IN LONDON, 

*• Here where the end of earthly things 
Lays heroes, patriots, bards, and kings. 
Where stiff the hand and still the tongue 
Of those who fought, and spoke, and sung. 
Here, where the fretted aisles prolong 
The distant notes ot holy song, 
As if some angel spoke again, 
* All peace on earth, goodwill to man,* 
If ever from an English heart. 
Oh, here let prejudice depart ! " — Walter Scott. 

The name Poets' Corner^ as applied to the southern end 
of the south transept, is first mentioned by Goldsmith. The 
attraction to the spot as the burial-place of the poets arose 
from its containing the grave of Chaucer, " the father of 
English poets," whose tomb, though it was not erected till 
more than a hundred years after his death (1551), is the only 
ancient monument in the transept. Here, as Addison says, 
" there are many poets who have no monuments, and many 
monuments which have no poets." Though many of the 
later monuments are only cenotaphs, they are still for the 
most part interesting as portraying those they commemo- 
rate. That which strikes every one is the wonderful beauty 
of the colouring in the interior. Architects will pause to 
admire the Purbeck marble columns with their moulded, 
not sculptured, capitals ; the beauty of the triforium arcades, 
their richness so greatly enhanced by the wall-surface above 
being covered with a square diaper ; the noble rose- 
windows; and, above all, the perfect proportions of the 
whole. But no knowledge of architecture is needed for 
the enjoyment of the colouring — of the radiant hues of the 
stained-glass, which enhances the depth of the shadows amid 
the time-stained arches, and floods the roof and its beautiful 
tracery with light. 



INTERIOR OF THE ABBEY. 237 

Few, however, among the hundreds who visit it daily 
are led to the Abbey by its intrinsic beauty, but rather 
because it is " the silent meeting-place of the great dead 
of eight centuries" — the burial-place of those of her 
sons whom, at different times of her taste and judgment, 
England has delighted to honour with sepulture in "the 
great temple of silence and reconciliation, where the enmities 
of twenty generations lie buried." * 

" Let us now praise famous men, and our fathers that begat us. 
The Lord hath wrought great glory by them through his great power 
trom the beginning. Such as did bear rule in their kingdoms, men 
renowned for their power, giving counsel by their understanding. 
Leaders ot the people by their counsels, and by their knowledge of 
learning meet lor the people, wise and eloquent in their instructions. 
Such as lound out musical tunes, and recited verses in writing : rich 
men turnished with ability, livmg peaceably in their habitations. All 
these were honoured m their generation, and were the glory of theii 

times Their bodies are buried in peace, but their name liveth 

tor evermore." — Ecclestasttcus xliv. i — 7, 14. 

" When 1 am In a serious humour, 1 very often walk by myself in 
Westminster Abbey ; wheie the gloominess ot the place, and the use 
to which it is applied, with the solemnity of the building, and the 
condition ot the people who lie in it, are apt to fill the mind with a 
kind of melancholy, or rather thoughtfulness that is not disagreeable. 

" When 1 look upon the tombs of the great, every notion of envy 
dies in me ; when I read the epitaphs of the beautiful, every inordinate 
desire goes out ; when I meet with grief of parents upon a tombstone, 
my heart melts with compassion ; when I see the tombs of the parents 
themselves, 1 consider the vanity of grieving for those whom we must 
quickly follow. When I see kings lying by the side of those who 
deposed them, when I consider rival wits placed side by side, or the 
holy men that divided the world with their contests and disputes, I 
reflect with sorrow and astonishment on the little competitions, factions, 
and debates of mankind. When I read the several dates of the tombs, 
of some that died yesterday, and some six hundred years ago, I con- 
sider that great day when we shall all of us be contemporaries, and 
make our appearance together." — Addison, Spectator, No. 2b, 

• IMacaulay. 



238 WALKS IN LONDON. 

"Death openeth the gate to good fame, and extin^uisheth envy ; 
above all, believe it, when a man hath obtained worthy ends and 
expectations, the sweetest canticle is 'Nunc Dimittis.' " — Lord Bacon. 

" O eloquent, just, and mighty Death ! whom none could advise, 
thou hast persuaded ; what none hath dared, thou hast done ; and 
whom all the world hath flattered, thou only hast cast out of the world 
and despised; thou hast drawn together all the far-stretched greatnfess, 
all the pride, cruelty, and ambition of man, and covered it aU over with 
these two words, Hie jacety — Sir W. Raleioh. Hist, of the World. 

" The best of men are but men at the best." — General Lambert. 

Those who look upon the tombs of the poets can 
scarcely fail to observe, with surprise, how very few are 
commemorated here whose Avorks are read now, how many 
whose very existence is generally forgotten.* 

"I have always observed that the visitors to the Abbey remain 
longest about the simple memorials in Poets' Corner. A kinder and 
fonder feeling takes the place of that cold curiosity or vague admira- 
tion with which they gaze on the splendid monuments of the great and 
the heroic. They linger about these as about the tombs of friends and 
companions." — Washington Irving. The Sketch Book. 

Beginning to the right from the entrance, we find the 
monuments of — 

Michael Drayton, author of the " Polyolbion," who "exchanged 
his laurell for a crowne of glory "in 1 63 1. His bust was erected here 
by Anne Clifford, "Dorset, Pembroke, and Montgomery." 

* We look in vain for any monuments to Sir Philip Sidney, Christopher Mar- 
lowe, Robert Southwell, John Donne, Thomas Carew, Philip Massinger, Sir 
John Suckling-, George Sandys, Francis Quarles, Thomas He}nwood, Richard 
Lovelace, Robert Herrick, George Withers, Henry Vaughan, Andrew Marvell, 
Thomas Otway, Izaak Walton, Thomas Parnell, Edmund Waller, William 
Somerville, William Collins, Edward Moore, Allan Ramsay, William Shenstone, 
William Falconer, Mark Akenside, Thomas Chatterton, Tobias Smollett, Thomas 
Wharton, Robert Burns, James Beattie, James Hogg, George Crabbe, Felicia 
Hemans, L. E. Landon, and John Keats. Even the far greater memories of 
Walter Scott, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and Walter 
Savage Landor are unrepresented Stained windows are supposed to comme- 
morate George Herbert and William CowHif. 



TOMBS OF THE POETS, 239 

•* Doe pious marble ! let thy readers knowe 
"What they, and what their children owe 
To Drayton's name, whose sacred dust 
We recommend unto thy trust. 
Pi otect his mem'ry, and preserve his storye, 
Remalne a lastinge monument of his glorye ; 
And when thy ruines shall disclame 
To be the treasrer of his name : 
His name, that canot fade, shall be 
An everlasting monument to thee." 

** Mr. Marshall, the stone-cutter of Fetter Lane, told me that these 
veises were made by Mr. Francis Quarles, who was his great fiiend. 
'Tis pity they should be lost. Mr. Quarles was a very good man," — 
Aubrey. 

*• There is probably no poem of this kind in any other language com- 
parable together in extent and excellence to the Poly-olbion. Yet 
perhaps no English poem, known as well by name, is so little known 
beyond its nzm^y — Hallam. Intro, to Lit. Hist. 

Barton Booth, the actor, 1733, with a medallion. Being educated 
at Westminster, where he was the favourite of Dr. Busby, he was first 
induced to take to the stage by the admiration he excited while acting 
in one of Terence's plays as a schoolboy. He was the original " Cato " 
in Addison's play. 

John Philips, 1 708, buried at Hereford, an author, whose once cele- 
brated po.m, "Tiie Splendid Shilling," is now almost forgotten. 
Mihon was his model, and " whatever there is in Milton which the 
reader wishes away, all that is obsolete, peculiar, or licentious, is 
accumulated with great care by Philips."* The monument was 
erected by the poet's friend, Sir Simon Harcourt. The epitaph is 
attributed to Dr. Smalridge. The line, " Uni Miltono secundus, 
primoque paene par." was effaced under Dean Sprat, not because of 
its almost profane arrogance, but because the royalist dean would not 
allow even the name of the regicide Milton to appear within the Abbey 
— it was " too detestable to be read on the wall of a building dedicated 
to devotion." The line was restored under Dean Atterbury.f Philips's 
poem of '♦ Cyder " is commemorated in the bower of apple entwined 
with laurel which encircles his bust, and the inscription, *' Honos erat 
huic quoque Pomo." 

* Johnson's " Lives of the Poets." ♦ Ibid. 



240 



WALKS IN LONDON, 



Geoffrey Chancer, 1400. A grey marble altar-tomb with a canopy, 
erected by Nicholas Bingham in the reign of Edward VI. This 
" Maister Chaucer, the Flour of Poetes," is chiefly known from his 
<' Canterbury Tales," by which a company of pilgrims, who meet at 
the Tabard Inn in Southwark on their way to the shrine of St. Thomas 
a Becket, are supposed to beguile their journey. The fortunes of 
Chaucer followed those of John of Gaunt, who married the sister of 
the poet's wife, Philippa de Rouet, and he was at one time imprisoned 
for his championship of the followers of WicklifFe. He was buried 




Chaucer's Tomb. 



"in the Abbey of Westminster, before the chapel of St. Bennet."* 
The window above the tomb was erected to the poet's memory 
in 1868. 

" Chaucer lies buried in the south aisle of St. Peter's, Westminster, 
and now hath got the company of Spenser and Drayton, a pair royal 
of poets, enough almost to make passengers' feet to move metncalb', 
who go over the place where so much poetical dust is interred." — 
Fuller, 

* Caxton in his ed. of Chaucer's trans, of Boethius. 



TOMBS OF THE POETS. 241 

Abraham Cowley, 1667. The monument stands above the grave of 
tHe poet, and was erected by George Villiers, second Duke of Bucking- 
ham. Dean Swift wrote the inscription to "the Pindar, Horace, and 
Virgil of England, and the delight, ornament, and admiration of his 
age." Cowley was zealously devoted to the cause of Charles I., but 
was cruelly neglected by Charles II., though, on hearing of his death, 
the king is reported to have said that "he (Cowley) had not left a better 
man behind him." The popularity of Cowley had already waned in 
the days of Pope, who wrote — 

*' Who now reads Cowley ? If he pleases yet, 
His moral pleases, not his pointed wit : 
Forget his epic, nay, Pindaric, art, 
But still I love the language of his heart," 

(Above Chaucer) an epitaph to John Roberts, 1776, the " very 
faithful secretary " to Henry Pelham. 

John Dryden, 1700. A bust by Schecmakers, erected by Sheffield, 
Duke of Buckingham. Pope wrote the couplet — 

*♦ This Sheffield raised ; the sacred dust below 
Was Dryden once : the rest who does not know ? " 

Dryden, who succeeded Sir William Davenant as poet-laureate, was 
educated at Westminster School. He shifted his politics with the 
Restoration, having previously been an ardent admirer of Cromwell. 
His twenty-seven plays are now almost forgotten, and so are his prose 
works, however admirable. His reputation chiefly rests on his " Ode 
for St. Cecilia's Day," and the musical opening lines of his '* Hind 
and Panther," written after his secession to the Church of Rome, 
in the second part of which he represented the milk-white hind (Rome) 
and the spotted panther (the Church of England) as discussing theo- 
logy. He was buried at the feet of Chaucer (see Ch. III.). 

Near Dryden Ues Francis Beaumont, the dramatist, 1616. 

Returning to the south entrance, and turning left, we find 
monuments to — 

Ben Jonson, 1637, who was educated at Westminster School, but 
afterwards became a bricklayer, then a soldier, and then an actor. His 
comedies found such favour with James I. that he received a pension of 
a hundred marks, with the title of poet-laureate, in 1616. His pension 
was increased by Charles I., but he died in great poverty in the neigh- 

VOL. II. R 



242 WALKS IN LONDON. 

bourhood of the Abbey, where he was buried in the north aisle of 
the nave. ** Every Man in His Humour and The Alchymist are 
perhaps the best of his comedies ; but there is hardly one of his 
pieces which, as it stands, would please on the stage in the present 
day, even as most of them failed to please in his own time."* His 
allegorical monument, by Rysbrack, was erected in 1 737. 

Samuel Butler^ 1680, buried at St. Paul's, Covent Garden ; the 
author of '♦ Huiibras," a work which, when it came out, "was incom- 
parably more popular than " Paradise Lost ; " no poem in our language 
rose at once to greater reputation." f 

"By the first paragraph the reader is amused, by the next he is 
delighted, and by a few more constrained to astonishment. But asto- 
nishment is a tiresome pleasure ; he is soon weary of wondering, and 
longs to be diverted." — yohnson. 

The bust was erected by John Barber, Lord Mayor, " that he who 
was destitute of all things when alive, might not want a monument 
when dead." 

Edmond Spenser, 1 598, with the epitaph, ** Here lyes expecting the 
second comminge of our Saviour Christ Jesus, the body of Edmond 
Spencer, the Prince of Poets in his tyme, whose divine spirrit needs 
noe othir witnesse then the workes which he left behinde him." He 
died in King Street, Westminster, and was buried here at the expense 
of Devereux, Earl of Essex, the spot being selected for his grave on 
account of its vicinity to Chaucer. 

"His hearse was attended by poets, and mournful elegies and 
poems, with the pens that wrote them, were thrown into his tomb. 
What a funeral was that at which Beaumont, Fletcher, Jonson, and, 
in all probability, Shakspeare, attended ! — what a grave in which the 
pen of Shakspeare may be mouldering away ! " — Stanley. Memorials 
of Westminster. 

It is by his " Faerie Queene " that Spenser is chiefly known now, 
but his ** Shepheardes Calendar " was so much admired by Dryden 
that he considered it " not to be matched in any modern language." 

*' Our sage and serious Spenser, whom I dare be known to think a 
better teacher than Scotus or Aquinas." — Milton, 

** The grave and diligent Spenser." — Ben Jonson. 

" Here's that creates a poet." — Quarles. 

Thomas Grny^ 1 77 1, buried at Stoke Pogis, chiefly known as the 
uthor of the " Elegy written in a Country Churchyard," which Byron 

• Schlegel's "Lectures on Dramatic Art and Lit," 
+ Hallam, " Introduct. to Lit. Hist." 



TOMBS OF THE POETS. 



243 



fustly call* " the comer-stone of his glory." The monument is by 
John Bacon. The Lyric Muse is represented as holding his medallion- 
portrait, and points to a bust of Milton. Beneath are the lines of 
Mason — 

** No more the Grsecian muse unrival'd reigns ; 
To Britain let the nations homage pay : 
She felt a Homer's fire in Milton's strains, 
A Pindar's rapture in the lyre of Gray." 

John Milton, 1671, buried at St. Giles's, Cripplegate (see Vol. I. 
Ch. VII.). The monument, by Ryshrack, was erected in 1737, when 
Dr. Gregory said to Dr. Johnson, *'I have seen erected in the chuich a 
bust of that man whose name I once knew considered as a pollution of 
its walls." ♦ It was set up at the expense of Auditor Benson, who 
"has bestowed more words upon himself than upon Milton," f whence 
Pope's line in the Dunciad — 

" On poets' tombs see Benson's titles writ." 

William Mason, 1797, buried at Aston in Yorkshire, of which he 
was rector. His dramatic poems of " Elfrida " and " Caractacus " are 
the least forgotten of his works. His monument, by the elder Bacon, 
bears a profile medallion, with an inscription by Bishop Hurd — 
**Poetae, si quis alius culto, casto, pio." 

Thomas Shadwell, 1692, who died of opium, and is buried at Chelsea. 
He was poet-laureate in the tune of William III. He " endeavoured 
to make the stage as grossly immoral as his talents admitted," but 
** was not destitute of humour." % Rochester said of him that if he had 
burnt all he wrote, and printed all he spoke, he would have had more 
wit and humour than any other poet. His rivalry with Dryden excited 
the ill-natured lines — 

** Mature in dulness from his tender years, 

Shadwell alone, of all my sons, is he 

Who stands confirm'd in full stupidity: 
' The rest to some faint meaning make pretence, 

But Shadwell never deviates into sense." § 

The monument, erected by the poet's son, Sir John Shadwell, bears 
his pert-looking bust crowned with laurel, by Ryswick. 

Matthew Prior, 1721, educated at Westminster School, whence he 
was removed to serve as tapster in the public-house of an uncle at 

• Johnson's " Lives of the Poets." t Johnson. 

% Hallam, " Lit. Hist, o^ Europe." { Mac Flecknoe. 



244 WALKS IN LONDON. 

Charing Cross. His knowledge of the Odes of Horace here attracted 
the attention of Lord Dorset, who sent him to St. John's College at 
Cambridge, and under the same patronage he rose to be Gentleman of 
the Bedchamber to William III. and Under Secretary of State, &c. 
** Alma " and ** Solomon " were considered his best works by his con- 
temporaries ; now no one reads them. He died at Wimpole in Cam- 
bridgeshire, and was buried by his own desire at the feet of Spenser. 
His bust, by Coysevox, was given by Louis XIV. His epitaph, by Dr. 
Freind, tells how, *' while he was writing the History of his own Times, 
Death interfered, and broke the thread of his discourse." 

Granville Sharp, 1813, buried at Fulham. His monument, with a 

profile medallion by Chantrey, was erected by the African Institution, in 
gratitude for his philanthropic exertions for the abolition of slavery. 

Charles de St. Denis, M. de St. Evremond, 1 703, the witty and dis- 
solute favourite of Charles II. A tablet and bust. 

Christopher Anstey, 1805, whose fame rests solely upon the "New 
Bath Guide," which, however, made him one of the most popular poets 
of his day ! 

Thomas Campbell, 1844. The author of " Hohenlinden " and 
" Gertrude of Wyoming." Beneath his statue by Marshall are en- 
graved some striking lines from his "Pleasures of Hope," which 
Byron considered " one of the most beautiful didactic poems in our 
language." 

Mrs. {Hannah) Pritchard, 1768, the actress, "by Nature for the 
stage designed," as she is described in her epitaph by Whitehead. 

Robert Southey, poet-laureate, 1843, buried at Crosthwaite. A bust 
by JVeekes. He left above fifty published works, but is immortalised by 
his '* Thalaba," *' Madoc," "Roderick," and the " Curse of Kehama." 

William Shakspeare, 1616, buried at Stratford-on-Avon. 

" In poetry there is but one supreme. 
Though there are other angels round his throne, 
Mighty and beauteous, while his face is hid." 

W. S. Lander. 

The monument, by Kent and Scheemakers^ was erected by public 
subscription in 1740. The lines from the Tempest inscribed on the 
scroll which the figure holds in his hand seem to have a peculiar 
application in the noble building where they are placed — 

*' The cloud-capp'd towers, the gorgeous palaces, 
The solemn temples, the great globe itself, 



TOMBS OF THE POETS. £45 

Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve ; 
And, like this insubstantial pageant faded. 
Leave not a rack behind." 

yames Thomson, 1 748, buried at Richmond. His monument, 
designed by Robert Adam, is a figure leaning upon a pedestal, which 
bears in relief the Seasons, in commemoration of the work which 
has caused Thomson to rank amongst the best of oiu: descriptive 
poets. 

Nicholas Rowe, 17 18, poet-laureate of George I., the translator of 
Lucan's ** Pharsalia," and author of the Fair Penitent and jfane 
Shore. His only daughter, Charlotte Fane, is commemorated with 
him in a monument by Ryshrack. The epitaph, by Pope, alludes to 
Rowe's widow in the lines — 

" To these so moum'd in death, so lov'd in life, 
The childless parent and the widow'd wife. 
With tears inscribes this monumental stone, 
That holds their ashes, and expects her own." 

But, to the poet's excessive annoyance, after the stone was put up, 
the widow married again. 

John Gay, 1 732, chiefly known by his "Fables," and by the play 
called the Beggars'" Opera, which was thought to do so much 
towards corrupting the morals of his time, and which gave its author 
the name of the " Orpheus of Highwaymen." His monument, by 
Ryshrack, was erected by the Duke and Duchess of Queensberry, 
who " loved this excellent person living, and regretted him dead." 
The Duchess was the " lovely Kitty " of Prior's verse, when 

*' Gay was nursed in Queensberry's ducal halls." 
Under a medallion portrait of the poet are his own strange lines— 
" Life is a jest, and all things show it, 
I thought so once, and now I know it." 
And beneath is an epitaph by Pope, who was his intimate friend. 

Oliver Goldsmith, l'J1\, buried at the Temple, author of the 
** Vicar of Wakefield " and the " Deserted Village." Sir J. Reynolds 
chose the site for the monument, and Dr. Johnson wrote the inscrip- 
tion in Latin, flatly refusing to accede to the petition of all the other 
friends of Goldsmith (expressed in a round-robin), that he would 
celebrate the poet's fame in the language in which he wrote. The 
medallion is by Nollekens. 



246 WALKS IN LONDON 

Beyond this, we may consider ourselves to pass from 
the Poets' Corner, and to enter upon the "historical 
and learned side of the south transept." 

Johtiy Duke of Argyle and Greenwich^ I743» buried in Henry VII.'s 
Chapel. A Roman statue with allegorical fiojures, by Rouhiliac. 
Canova considered the figure of Eloquence (deeply attentive to the 
Duke's oratory) " one of the noblest statues he had seen in Eng- 
land." The epitaph is by Paul Whitehead. 

"It is said that, .through the influence of Sir Edward Walpole, the 
monument in memory of John, Duke of Argyle and Greenwich, was 
confided to the hands of Roubiliac. The design is a splendid conceit 
— the noble warrior and orator is stretched out and expiring at the 
foot of a pyramid, on which History is writing his actions, while 
Minerva looks mournfully on, and Eloquence deplores his fall. The 
common allegorical materials of other monuments are here. Even 
History is inscribing a conceit — she has written John, Duke of Argyle 

and Gr there she pauses and weeps. There is a visible want of 

unity in the action, and in this work at least Roubiliac merits the 
reproach of Flaxman, that ' he did not know how to combine figures 
together so as to form an intelligible story.' Yet no one, before or 
since, has shown finer skill in rendering his figures individually 
excellent. Argyle indeed seems reluctant to die, and History is a 
little too theatrical in her posture ; but all defects are forgotten in 
looking at the figure of Eloquence, with her supplicating hand and 
earnest brow." — Allan Cunningham. 

George Frederick Handel, 1759. The tomb is the last work of 
Rouhiliac, who cast the face after death. The skill of Roubiliac is 
conspicuous in the ease which he has given to the unwieldy figure of 
the great musician. " He who composed the Messiah and the 
Israel in Egypt must have been a poet, no less than a musician, of 
no ordinary degree. Therefore he was not utifitly buried in Poets' 
Corner, apart from his tuneful brethren. Not less than three thousand 
persons of all ranks attended the funeral." — Stanley. 

William Makepeace Thackeray^ buried at Kensal Green, the honoured 
author of "Vanity Fair," *' Esmond," and "The Newcomes." A bust. 

Joseph Addison, 17 19, whose contributions to the Tatler and Spec- 
tator have caused him to be regarded as the greatest of English 
essayists, and whose character stood equally high as an author, a man, 
and a Christian. His statue, by Wcstmacotty stands on a pedestal 



THE AISLE OF HISTORY. 24J 

surrounded by the nine Muses. As we look at it we may remember 
how he was accustomed to walk by himself in Westminster Abbey, 
and meditate on the condition of those who lay in it. 

" It represents him, as we can conceive him, clad in his dressing- 
gown, and fieed from his wig. stepping from his parlour at Chelsea 
into his trim little garden, with the account of the Everlasting Club, 
or the Loves of Hilpa and Shalum, just finished for the next day's 
Spectator, in his hand. Such a mark of national respect was due to 
the unsullied statesman, to the accomplished scholar, to the master of 
pure English eloquence, to the consummate painter of life and manners. 
It was due, above all, to the great satirist, who alone knew how to use 
ridicule without abusing it, who, without inflicting a wound, effected a 
great social reform, and who reconciled wit and virtue, after a long and 
disastrous separation, during which wit had been led astray by profli- 
gacy, and virtue by fanaticism." — Macaulay. 

Thomas Babington Macaulay^ the poet and historian, 1859. A bust. 
On his gravestone is inscribed, " His body is buried in peace, but his 
name liveth evermore." 

Isaac Barrow y 1 67 7, the wit, mathematician, and divine. He was 
the college ^utor of Sir Isaac Newton, whose optical lectures were 
published at his expense. He died (being Master of Trinity, Cam- 
bridge) at one of the canonical houses in the cloisters. In the words 
of his epitaph, he was " a man almost divine, and truly great, if great- 
ness be comprised in piety, probity, and faith, the deepest learning, 
equal modesty, and morals in every respect sanctified and sweet." 

James fVyatt, the architect, 1813. A tablet. 

(Above) Dr. Stephen Hales, 1761, philosopher and botanist. The 
monument, by Wilton, was erected by Augusta, " the mother of that best 
of kings, George III." Religion stands on one side of the monu- 
ment lamenting the deceased, while Botany, on the other, holds his 
medallion, and, beneath, the Winds appear on a globe, in allusion to 
the invention of ventilation by Hales. 

Isaac Casaubon, 1 6 19, the famous critic and scholar, editor of 
Persius and Polybius, who received a canonry of Westminster from 
James I. On the monument, erected by Bishop Morton, is to be 
seen the monogram of Izaak Walton, scratched by the angler himself, 
with the date 1658. 

John Ernest Grdbe, 17 14, the orientalist, buried at St. Pancras. 
He was induced to reside in England by his veneration for the Reformed 
Church, and was editor of a valuable edition of the Septuagint. 



248 WALKS IN LONDON, 

William Camden, 1623 (buried before St. Nicholas's Chapel), the 
Antiquary — *• the British Pausanias," who, a house-painter's son, 
became head-master of Westminster. The office of Clarencieux King 
at Arms, which was bestowed upon him in 1597, gave him time to 
become the author of the " Britannia," which caused him to be 
looked upon as one of the glories of the reign of Elizabeth : he was 
afterwards induced by Lord Burleigh to write the annals of that reign. 
The nose of the effigy was broken by some Cavaliers, who broke 
into the abbey to destroy the hearse of the Earl of Essex, but it was 
restored by the University of Oxford. 

" It is most worthy to be observed with what diligence he (Camden) 
inquired after ancient places, making hue and cry after many a city 
which was run away, and by certain marks and tokens pursuing to 
find it ; as by the situation on the Roman highways, by just distance 
from other ancient cities, by some affinity of name, by tradition of the 
inhabitants, by Roman coins digged up, and by some appearance of 
ruins. A broken urn is a whole evidence ; or an old gate still sur- 
viving, out of which the city is run out. Besides, commonly some 
new spruce town not far off is grown out of the ashes thereof, which 
yet hath as much natural affection as dutifully to own these reverend 
ruins for her mother." — Fuller. 

David Garrick, 1779, the actor. His figure, throwing aside a 
curtain and disclosing a medallion of Shakspeare, is intended to be 
allegorical of the way in which his theatrical performance unveiled the 
beauties of Shakspeare's works. 

" To paint fair nature, by divine command, 
Her magic pencil in his glowing hand, 
A Shakspeare rose, — then to expand his fame, 
"Wide o'er this ' breathing world,' a Garrick came. 
Though sunk in death the forms the Poet drew, 
The Actor's genius bade them breathe anew : 
Though, like the Bard himself in night they lay, 
Immortal Garrick called them back to day." 

Epitaph by Pratt. 

George Grote, 187 1, the historian of Greece. A bust by G. Bacon. 

Amongst the illustrious dead who have tombstones in 
this transect, but no monuments upon the walls, are (begin- 
ning from the south wall) — 



IN THE AISLE OF HISTORY, 249 

Sir John Denham, 1618, the poet of ♦* Cooper's Hill," "deservedly 
considered as one of the fathers of EngHsh poetry." * 

Dr. Samuel Johnson, 1 784, the essayist, critic, and lexicographer. 
He was buiied here by his friend Garrick, contrary to his desire that he 
might rest at Adderley in Shropshire, which belonged to his friend 
Lady Corbet, cousin of Mrs. Thrale. His monument is in St. Paul's. 

Richard Brinsley Sheridan, 1816, the dramatist (author of the 
Rivals, the Duenna, and the School for Scandal), who, being for 
many years in Parliament, obtained an extraordinary reputation as an 
orator by his " Begum Charge " before the House of Commons, in the 
proceedings against Wan en Hastings. He was suffered to die in 
great poverty, yet his funeral was conducted with a magnificence which 
called forth the verses of Moore — 

" Oh ! it si> kens the heart to see bosoms so hollow, 
And spirits so mean in the great and high-bom, 
To think what a long line of titles may follow 
The relics of him who died — friendless and lorn I 

How proud can they press to the funeral array 

Of one whom thty shunned in his sickness and sorrow: — 

The bailiffs may seize his last blanket to-day. 

Whose pall shall be held up by nobles to-morrow." 

John Henderson, the actor, 1785 — equally great in comedy and 
tragedy. 

Mary Eleanor Bowes, 1800, the beautiful and unfortunate ninth 
Countess of Strathmore, buried amongst the poets on account of her 
brilliant wit and her extraordinary mental acquirements. 

Dr. Thomas Parr, " of ye county of Salop, born in A.D. 1483. He 
lived in the reignes of ten princes, viz. — King £dward IV., King Ed- 
ward v.. King Richard IH., King Henry VII., King Henry VIII., 
King Edward VI,, Queen Mary, Queen Elizabeth, King James, King 
Charles; aged 152 years, and was buryed here, 1635." 

Charles Dickens, 1870 (the grave is near that of Thackeray), the 
illustrious author of many works, of which the " Pickwick Papers," 
"Oliver Tuist," " Dombey and Son," and " David Copperfield " are 
the best known. 

Sir Williatn Davenant, 1668, who succeeded Ben Jonson as poet- 
laureate to Charles I., being son of a vintner at Oxford. He was 

• Dr. Johnson. 



250 WALKS IN LONDON, 

buried in the grave of Thomas May, the poet (disinterred at the Resto* 
ration), with the inscription, " O Rare Sir William Davenant." 

Sir Richafd Moray, 1 673, one of the founders of the Royal Society, 
called by Bishop Burnet ** the wisest and worthiest man of his age.** 

James Macpherson, 1796, author of "Ossian,*' brought hither from 
Inverness, 

Robert Adam, 1 792, architect of the Adelphi Terrace and Osterley 
Park, &c. 

Sir William Chambers^ 1796, architect of Somerset House. 

William Gifford, 1826, the eminent critic, best known as the editor 
of the Quarterly Review from its commencement in 1819 to 1824. 

John Ireland, Dean of Westminster, 1 842, founder of the Ireland 
scholarships at Oxford. 

(By the grave of Grote) Connop Thirlwall, Bishop of St. David's, 
the rival historian of Greece, 1875. 

Between the pillars opposite Dryden's tomb is a slab from which the 
brass has been torn away, covering the grave of Hawle, the knight 
murdered in the choir, 1378, during the Abbey service, by a breach of 
the rights of sanctuary. 

Against the screen of the choir, on the right of its 
entrance, are the tombs of — 

Dr. Richard Busby, 1695, for fifty-five years head-master of West- 
minster School. His noble statue (by F. Bird) does not seem sugges- 
tive of the man who declared that *' the rod was his sieve, and that 
whoever could not pass through that, was no boy for him." He is 
celebrated for having persistently kept his hat on when Charles II. 
came to visit his school, saying that it would never do for the boys to 
think any one superior to himself. 

"As we stood before Dr. Busby's tomb, the knight (Sir Roger de 
Coverley) uttered himself again : ' Dr. Busby ! a great man ! he 
whipped my grandfather ; a very great man ! I should have gone 
to him myself, if I had not been a blockhead ; a very great man ! " — 
Addison, in the Spectator. 

Dr. William Vincent, 1815, head-master and dean. A tablet. 

Dr. Robert South, 1 7 16, Archdeacon of Westminster. As a West- 



THE CHOIR-AISLES. 251 

minsier boy, when leading the devotions of the school, he boldly 
prayed for Charles I. by name on the morning of his execution. He 
was afterwards chaplain to James, Duke of York ; Canon of Christ 
Church, Oxford, and of Westminster, of which he refused the Deanery 
when it was offered to him on the death of Dean Sprat. He was 
equally famous for his learning and wit, and for his theological and 
political intolerance. Bishop Burnet speaks of him as ** this learned 
but ill-natured divine." 

" South had great qualifications for that popularity which attends 
the pulpit, and his manner was at that time original. Not diffuse, not 
learned, not formal in argument like Barrow, with a more natural 
structure of sentences, a more pointed, though by no means a more 
fair and satisfactory, turn of reasoning, with a style clear and English, 
free from all pedantry, but abounding with those colloquial novelties 
of idiom which, though now become vulgar and offensive, the age of 
Charles II. affected ; sparing no personal or temporary sarcasm ; but 
if he seems for a moment to tread on the verge of buffoonery, recover- 
ing himself by some stroke of vigorous sense and language ; such was 
the witty Dr. South, whom the courtiers delighted to hear." — Hallam. 
Lit. Hist, of Europe. 

" South's sentences are gems, hard and shining : Voltaire's look like 
them, but are only French paste." — Guesses at Truth. 

We may now enter "the solemn by-ways of the Abbey " 
— the aisles surrounding the choir, outside which are a 
number of hexagonal chapels, which were probably built by 
Henry III. in imitation of those which he had himself 
seen in the course of construction in several of the northern 
cathedrals of France. These chapels contain all that is 
most precious in the Abbey. The gates of the choir-aisles 
are guarded by vergers. 

[The chapels are freely opened to the public on Mondays ; on other 
days a fee of sixpence is deposited on entering, and visitors are shown 
round by a verger. 

Visitors may, however, on application, obtain permission to linger 
in the chapels and to examine them by themselves, which will be 
imperative with all who are interested in the historic or art treasures 
they contain. 

Permission to draw in the chapels may be obtained by persMial 01 



252 WALKS IN LONDON. 

trritten application to the Dean ; and no church in the world — not even 
St. Mark's at Venice, St. Stephen's at Vienna, or the Mosque at 
Cordova — affords such picturesque subjects. 

Royal tombs, when given here in small type, with other tombs most 
important in the history of art, are marked with an asterisk.] 

On entering the aisles of the choir^ we pass at once from 
the false taste of the last two centuries, to find the surround- 
ings in harmony with the architecture. The ancient altars 
are gone, very little of the old stained glass remains, 
several of the canopies and many of the brasses and statu- 
ettes have been torn from the tombs ; but, with these excep- 
tions, the hand of the worst of destroyers — the "restorers" — 
has been allowed to rest here more than any other of our 
great English churches, ami, except in the introduction of 
the atrocious statue of Watt and the destruction of some 
ancient screens for the monuments of Lord Bath and 
General Wolfe, there is little which jars upon the exquisite 
colouring and harmonious beauty of the surroundings. 

On the left is the Gothic *' tomb of touchstone " erected by 
Henry III. to Sebert, King of the East Saxo?is, 6i6, and his 
Queen, Eihelgoda, when he moved their bodies from the 
chapter-house, where they were first buried. Over this 
tomb, under glass, is a curious altar-decoration of the four- 
teenth century. 

*' In the centre is a figure which appears to be intended for Christ, 
holding the globe and in the act of blessing ; an angel with a palm 
branch is on e ch side. The single figure at the left hand of the 
whole decoration is St. Peter ; the figure that should correspond on 
the right, and all the Scripture subjects on that side, are gone. In 
the compartments to the left, between the figure of St. Peter and the 
centre figures, portions of three subjects remain : one represents the 
Adoration of the Kings ; another, apparently, the Raising of 
Lazarus ; the subject of the third is doubtful, though some figures 
remain ; the fourth is destroyed. These single figures and subjects 



CHAPEL OF ST. BENEDICT. 253 

are woithy of a good Italian artist of the fourteenth century. The 
remaining decorations were splendid and costly : the small compart- 
ments in the architectural enrichments are filled with variously 
coloured pieces of glass inlaid on tin-foil, and have still a biilliant 
effect. This interesting work of art is suppo ed to have originally 
formed part of the decorations of the high altar." — Eastlake. Hist, of 
Oil Fainting, i. 176. 

Eeyond this, the eye, wearied with the pagan sculptures of 
the transept, rests in ecstasy upon the lovely details of the 
tombs of Richard II. and Edward III. 

** In St. Peter's at Rome one is convinced that it was built by great 
princes. In Westminster Abbey one thinks not of the builder ; the 
religion of the place makes the first impression, and, though stripped 
of its shrines and altars, it is nearer converting one to Popery than all 
the regular pageantry of Roman domes. One must have taste to be 
sensible of the beauties of Grecian architecture ; one only wants pas- 
sion to feel Gothic. Gothic churches infuse superstition, Grecian 
temples admiration. The Papal see amassed its wealth by Gothic 
cathedrals, and displays it in Grecian temples." — WalpolCy i. 108, 

We must now turn to the chapels. 

** I wandered among what once were chapels, but which are now 
occupied by the tombs and monuments of the great. At every txuii I 
met with rare illustrious names, or the cognizance of some powerful 
house renowned in history. As the eye darts into these dusky cham- 
bers of death, it catches glimpses of quaint effigies ; some kneeling in 
niches, as if in devotion ; others stretched upon the tombs, with hands 
piously pressed together ; warriors in armour, as if reposing after 
battle; prelates with croziers and mitres ; and nobles in robes and 
coronets, lying as it were in state. In glancing over this scene, so 
strangely populous, yet where every form is so still and silent, it seems 
almost as if we were treading a mansion of that fabled city, where 
every being has been suddenly transmuted into stone." — Washington 
Irving. 

On the right is the Chapel of St. Benedict, or Bennet, only- 
separated by a screen of monuments from the south tran- 
sept. The fine tomb in the centre is that of Lionel Cran- 



254 WALKS IN LONDON. 

field, Earl of Middlesex, 1645, Lord High Treasurer in the 
time of James I., and Anne, his wife ; it is one of the 
latest instances of a monument in which the figures have 
animals at their feet.* His grave, with those of other mem- 
bers of his family, is beneath the pavement of the aisle. 
Other tombs are — 

(South Wall) George Sprat (1682), son of the Dean of West- 
minster. 

Gabriel Goodman, Dean of Westminster (1601), of whom Fuller 
says, " Goodman was his name, and goodness was his nature." It was 
under this dean that the Protestant services of the Abbey were re- 
established. 

(At the east end, on the site of the altar) Frances Howard, Countess 
of Hertford (1598), sister ol Howard of Effingham, the Lord High 
Admiral who repulsed the Armada, daughter-in-law of the Protector 
Somerset, and cousin of Edward VI. She lived till the fortieth year 
of Elizabeth, " greately favoured by her gratious sovereigne, and 
dearly beloved of her lord." 

Abbot Curtlyngton (1334), the first person buried in the chapel. 
His brass s torn away. 

* (East Wall) Abbot Simon Langham (1376). A noble alabaster 
statue in great preservation on an altar-tomb : it once had a canopy, 
and a statue of Mary Magdalen, on the eve of whose feast the abbot 
died, stood at his feet. He was in turn Bishop of Ely, Archbishop of 
Canterbury, Cardinal Bishop of Prseneste, Lord High Treasurer, and 
Lord Chancellor. He was brought back to be buried here from 
Avignon, where he died. His immense benefactions to the Abbey arc 
recorded by Godwin, yet his unpopularity appears in the verses which 
commemorate his translation from Ely to Canterbury — 

** The Isle of Ely laught when Simon from her went, 
But hundred thousand wept at his coming into Kent."t 

William Bill (1561), the first Elizabethan Dean of Westminster, 
Grand Almoner to the Queen, a good and learned man, and "a friend 
to those that were so." 

^ohn Spottiswoode, Archbishop of Glasgow, is believed to be buried 

• Gough, " Sepulchral EflSgies." t Weaver's " Funeral Monuments." 



SOUTH AISLE OF CHOIR, 



^11 



here. He wrote the ** History of the Scottish Church " at the command 
of James I., ♦' who, being told that some passages in it might possibly 
bear too hard upon the memory of his Majesty's mother, bid him 
♦ write the truth and spare not.' " ♦ 

Between the Chapels of St. Benedict and St. Edmund is 
a tomb of four of the Childre?i of Henry III. (Richard, John, 
Henry, and Katharine), once adorned with mosaics. The State 
Records contain the king's order of its erection, and for 
allowing Simon de Wells five marks and a half for bringing a 
brass image from the City, and William de Gloucester seventy 
marks for a silver image — both being for the tomb of the 
king's little dumb daughter Katharine, of five years old, for 
whom mass was daily said in the hermitage of Charing. 

«' Katharine, third daughter of King Henry III. and Queen Eleanor, 
was born at London, A.D. 1252, Nov. 25th, being St. Katharine's 
day, whose name was therefore given unto her at the Font, by Boni- 
face, Archbishop of Canterbury, her uncle and godfather. She dyed 
in her very infancy, on whom, we will presume to bestow this epitaph — 

* Wak't from the worabe, she on this world did peep, 
Dislik't it, clos'd her eyes, fell fast asleep.' " 

Fuller's IVorthiei. 

In the pavement of the aisle are the tombs of Robert 
TounseUy Dean of Westminster and Bishop of Salisbury, 1621 ; 
of Cicely Ratdiffe, 1396 ; of Thomas Bilson^ Bishop of Win- 
chester, the "deep and profound scholar; t and oi Sir John 
de Bewerley and his wife, A7i7ie Buxall, which once bore 
brasses. Beneath the tomb of Richard II. is believed to 
lie Queen Anne of Warwick, the unhappy Anne Nevile, who 
married first the Prince of Wales, Edward, son of Henry 
VI. After his murder at Tewkesbury she fled from the 
addresses of his cousin, the Duke of Gloucester, afterwards 

• Bishop Nicholson, " Scot. Hist." f Fuller's " Worthies." 



256 WALKS IN LONDON, 

Richard III., but was discovered disguised as a kitchen- 
maid, and married to him against her will. She died in less 
than two years after her coronation, of grief for the loss of 
her only child, Edward, Prince of Wales. 

St, Edmund's Chapel (the first of the hexagonal chapels), 
dedicated to the martyred Archbishop of Canterbury, is 
separated from the aisle by an ancient wooden screen. It 
is crowded with interesting monuments. In the centie are 
three tombs. 

♦ That in the midst bears a glorious brass in memory of Eleanor de 
Bohun, Duchess of Gloucester, daughter of the Earl of Hertford, and 
wife of Thomas of Woodstock, youngest son of Edward III., buried 
in the Confessor's Chapel. After her husband's arrest and assassina- 
tion,"she became a nun of Barking Abbey, where she died in 1399. 
Her figure, in a widow's dress, lies under a triple canopy. 

Beyond Eleanor, on the south, are the tomb and cross of Robert de 
Waldehy, Archbishop of York (1391), the friend of the Black Prince 
and tutor of Richard II. On the north is Mary Villiers, Countess of 
Stafford (1693), wife of William Howard, the Earl beheaded under 
Charles II. At her feet rests Henry Feme, Bishop of Chester (1 661), 
who attended Charles I. during his imprisonment, and " whose only 
fault it was that he could not be angry." ♦ 

Making the circuit of the chapel from the right, we find 
the tombs of — 

♦ William de Valence, Earl of Pembroke (1296). He was half- 
brother to Henry HI., being the son of Queen Isabella, widow of John, 
by her second marriage with Hugh le Brune, Earl of March and 
Poictiers. William, surnamed from his birthplace, was sent to Eng- 
land with his brothers in 1247, and the distinction wiih which they 
were treated was one of the grievances which led to the war with the 
barons. He fought in the battle of Lewes, and flying the kingdom 
afterwards, was killed at Bayonne. An indulgence of a hundred days 
was granted to all who prayed by this tomb, which is very curious. 
It was erected by William's son, Aylmer, and is a stone altar-tomb, 

• See Stanley, "Memorials," 243. 



CHAPEL OF ST. EDMUND. 257 

supporting a wooden sarcophagus, upon which lies the effigy, which 
is of wood covered with gilt copper. The belt and cushion, and, above 
all, the shield, are most beautiful examples of the use of enamelled 
metal as applied to monumental decoration. Many of the small shields 
u])on the cushion and surcoat bear the arms of Valence, others those of 
F[n gland. 

Edward Talbot, eighth Earl of Shrewsbury, and his wife, Jane Cuth- 
bert (161 7). A hnc Elizabethan tomb, once richly gilt, with effigies 
in the costume of James I. A little daughter kneels at her mother's 
feet. 

(In the pavement) Edward, Lord Herbert of Cherbury (1678), 
grandson of the famous Lord Herbert. A blue stone. 

Sir Richard Pecksall (1571), Master of the Buckhounds to Elizabeth, 
kneeling with his two wives, under three Corinthian arches. Four 
daughters kneel beneath their father. 

A great Gothic recess containing the effigy of Sir Bernard Brocas 
(1399-1400), Chamberlain to the Queen of Richard II., beheaded on 
Tower Hill for joining in a conspiracy to reinstate him. He won the 
head of a crowned Moor, on which his helmet rests, and it was before 
this tomb that Sir Roger de Coverley listened particularly to the 
account of the lord who had ** cut oif the King of Morocco's head."* 
The statue is in complete armour. 

(In front) Humphrey Bourchier, son of Lord Bemers, who died 1470, 
fighting for Edward IV, in the battle of Barnet. The brass figure is 
gone, but some shields and other ornaments remain. 

John, Lord Russell (1548), second son of the second earl. He lies 
with his face towards the spectator. At his feet is his infant son 
Francis, who died in the same year. His widow, Elizabeth, daughter 
of Sir Anthony Cooke, and sister of Lady Burleigh, who " from Deathe 
would take his memorie," commemorates his virtues in Latin, Greek, 
and English. She was first married to Sir Thomas Hobby of Bisham 
Abbey, where she is supposed to have beaten her little boy to death 
for blotting his copy-book, and which is still haunted by her ghost. 

Elizabeth Russell, daughter of the above John, seated asleep in her 
osier chair, with her foot upon a scroll, and the epitaph, " Dormit, non 
mortua est." The pedestal is ver^' richly decorated. This figure was 
formerly shown as that of a lady who died of the prick of a needle. 

• An inscription recording this feat formerly bung above tbe tomb. See 
Gough's " Sepulchral Monuments." 

VOL. II. S 



258 WALKS IN LONDON. 

" (Sir Roger di Coverley) was conducted to the figure which represents 
that martyr to good housewifery who died by the prick of a needle. 
Upon our interpreter's telhng us that she was a maid of honour to 
Queen Elizabeth, the knight was very inquisitive into her name and 
family; and. after having regarded her finger for some time, 'I 
wonder,' says he, * that Sir Richard Baker has said nothing of her in 
his Chronicle.' " — Spectator, No. 329. 

(In the pavement, most inappropriately placed here) Edivard Bulwer 
Lytton, Lord Lytton (1866), the novelist, chiefly known as the author of 
" Rienzi," " The Last Days of Pompeii," and " The Caxtons." 

Lady Jane Seymour, daughter of Edward, Duke of Somerset, and 
cousin of Edward VI. (1561). A tablet. 

Katherine, Lady Knollys (1568), daughter of William Carey and his 
wife Mary Boleyn, and sister to Lord Hunsdon. She attended her 
aunt. Queen Anne Boleyn, upon the scaffold, and was afterwards Chief 
Lady of the Bedchamber to her cousin Elizabeth. A tablet. 

On a pedestal, the seated figure oi Francis Holies, third son of John 
Earl of Clare, 1622, who died at eighteen on his return from the 
Flemish war. He is represented (by Nicholas Stone) in Roman 
armour, vidth the epitaph — 

" Man's life is measured by the worke, not dayes, 
No aged sloth, but active youth, hath prayse." 

^Frances Grey, Duchess of Suffolk (1559), niece of Henry VHL, 
"daughter of Charles Brandon, Duke of Southfolke, and Marie the 
French queen, first wife to Henrie, Duke of Southfolke, after to Adrian 
Stocke, Esq." By her second husband, married during the great 
poverty and distress into which she fell in the reign of Mary (after 
the death of her daughter. Lady Jane Grey), this tomb was erected, 
bearing a beautiful coroneted effigy. Her funeral service was the first 
English Protestant service after the accession of Elizabeth, by whom 
she was restored to favour. 

Nicholas Monk, Bishop of Hereford (1 661), brother of the famous 
Duke of Albemarle. 

(In the comer) Tablet to John Paul Howard, Earl Stafford (1762), 
surrounded by the quarterings of the Stafford family, who descend by 
ten different marriages from the royal blood of France and England. 
The epitaph tells how "his heart was entirely great and noble as his 
high descent ; faithful to his God ; a lover of his country ; a relation to 
relations ; a detestor of detraction ; a friend to mankind." 



CHAPEL OF ST. EDMUND. 



259 



* William of Windsor and Blanche of the Tower (1340), infant 
children of Edward III. A tiny altar-tomb bears their effigies — the 
boy in a short doublet, with flowing hair encircled by a band ; the girl 
in studded bodice, petticoat, and mantle, with a horned head-dress. 

It is interesting to remember that all the illustrious brothers and 
sisters of the little Princess Blanche stood around this her grave at her 
funeral — Edward the Black Prince, Lionel of Clarence, John of Gaunt, 
Edmund of Langley, Isabella de Coucy, and Joanna, afterwards Queen 
of Castile. 

* John of Eltham^ Earl of Cornwall (1334), second son of Edward 




Tomb of the Children of Edward III. 



III. (named from his birthplace), who died in his nineteenth year, and 
was expressly ordered to be buried " entre les royals." The effigy is of 
great antiquarian interest from the details of its plate armour. The 
effigy wears a surcoat, gorget, and a helmet, open in front to show the 
features, and surrounded by a coronet of large and small trefoil leaves 
alternated, being the earliest known representation of the ducal form of 
coronet.* Two efngels sit by the pillow, and around the tomb are muti- 
lated figures of the royal relations of the dead. The statuettes of the 
French relations are towards the chapel, and have been cruelly mutilated, 
but the English relations facing St. Edward's Chapel have been protected 

* There were no Dukes in England until two years after his death. 



26o WALKS IN LONDON, 

by the strong oak screen, and are of the most intense interest. Ed- 
ward II. is represented here, who is buried at Gloucester Cathedral. 
Here, on the left hand of the husband whose cruel murder she caused, 
is the only known portrait of the wicked Isabella the Fair, daughter of 
Philip le Bel, who died at Castle Rising, in 1358 ; she wears a crown 
at the top of her widow's hood, and holds a sceptre in her right hand. 
Here also alone can we become acquainted with the characteristics of 
her aunt, the stainless Marguerite of France, the granddaughter of St. 
Louis, who at the age of twenty became the second wife of Edward I., 
and dying at Marlborough Castle in 13 17, was buried in the Grey 
Fri;»rs' Church in London ; she wears a crown of fleur-de-lis over her 
widow's veil. This tomb of Prince John was once shaded by a canopy 
of exquisite beauty, supported on eight stone pillars — a forest of 
Gothic spires intermingled with statues ; it was destroyed in a rush 
of spectators at the funeral of the Duchess of Northumberland in 
1776. Fuller mentions John of Eltham as the last son of a King of 
England who died a plain earl; the title of Duke afterwards came 
into fashion. 



Passing, on the right wall of the ambulatory, the monu- 
ment of Richard Tuftoii^ brother of the first Earl of Thanet 
(1631), who gave his name to Tufton Street, Westminster; 
and treading on the grave of Sir Henry Spelman, the anti- 
quary (1641), whose pennon formerly hung above his grave,* 
we enter the Chapel of St. Nicholas (Bishop of Myra), 
separated from the aisle by a perpendicular stone screen 
adorned with a frieze of shields and roses. It is filled with 
Ehzabethan tombs, and is still the especial burial-place of 
the Percys. In the centre is a noble altar-tomb by Nicholas 
Stone} to Sir George ViUiers, 1605, the Leicestershire squire, 
who was the father of the famous Duke of Buckingham, and 
his wife, Mary Beaumont. This Sir George ViUiers was the 
subject of the famous ghost story given by Clarendon, J the 
'* man of venerable aspect " who thrice drew the curtains of 

• Aubrey + At a cost of 1^560. 

t History of the Rebellion, i. 74 — 77. 



CHAPEL OF ST. NICHOLAS, 261 

the bed of a humble friend at Windsor, and bade him go to 
his son the Duke of Buckingham, and warn him that, if he 
did not seek to ingratiate himself with the people, he would 
have but a short time to live. This Mary Beaumont it was 
wh3, as Countess of Buckingham, also so vividly foresaw 
her son's death, that though she had been "overwhelmed 
in tears and in the highest agony imaginable," after taking 
leave of him upon his last visit to her, yet, when she received 
the news of his murder, "seemed not in the least degree 
surprised.*' 

Close beside this tomb now rests the body of Queen 
Katherine de Valois^ daughter of Charles VI. of France and 
Isabeau of Bavari:i. After the close of her brief married life, 
in which, as the queen of Henry V., she was "received in 
England as if she had been an angel of God,"* being widowed 
at twenty-one, she sank at once into obscurity. Her son 
Henry VI. was taken from her guardianship and brought 
up by the Earl of Warwick, and falling in love with Owen 
Tudor, a handsome Welsh squire of her Windsor guard, 
and marrying him secretly, she became the mother of three 
sons and a daughter ; but the indignation excited by her 
mesalliance caused her children to be taken from her, her 
husband to be imprisoned in Newgate, and herself confined 
in Bermondsey Abbey, where she died in 1437. She was 
buried in the Lady Chapel at the east end of the Abbey. 
When that chapel was destroyed by Henry VII., her coffin 
was placed by her husband's tomb, where her mummified 
body was exposed to view, and was kissed by Pepys on his 
birthday. It was buried here in 1776. Making the circuit 
of the chapel from the right, we see the tombs of — 

• Monstrelet. 



262 WALKS IN LONDON, 

* Phtlippa, Duihess of York, daughter of John, Lord Mohun, and 
wife of Lord Fitzwalter, Sir John Golofre, and lastly of Edmund Plan- 
tagenet ("Edmund of Langley "), fifth son of Edward III., killed at 
the Battle of Agincourt. After his death she obtained the Lordship 
of the Isle of Wight, and resided in Carisbrook Castle, where she died, 
and whence she was brought with royal honours to Westminster. Her 
effigy {much injured) wears a long cloak and mantle, with a wimple 
and plaited veil. Her tomb is the earliest in this chapel, in the 
centre of which it formerly stood. It once had a canopy decorated 
with stars and a painting of the Passion. 

Elizabeth Percy, Duchess of Northumberland (1776), "in her own 
right Baroness Percy, Lucy, Poynings, Fitz Payne, Brian, and Latimer ; 
sole heiress of Algernon, Duke of Somerset, and of the ancient Earls 
of Northumberland." 

Winifred Brydges, Marchioness of Winchester (ic^Sl). Above this 
the effigy of Lady Poss, wife of the Earl of Exeter, grandson of Lord 
Burleigh. 

Elizabeth Cecil, Countess of Exeter, 1591. 

The Gothic canopied altar-tomb of William Dudley, first Dean of 
Windsor, and Bishop of Durham (1483), uncle of Henry VII. 's finan- 
cier. His figure is gone. Lying upon the tomb is the effigy of Cathe- 
rine, Lady St. John (1614), moved from the Chapel of St. Michael to 
make way for the Nightingale monument. 

An obelisk of white marble on a black pedestal supports a vase con- 
taining the heart of Anne Sophia, the infant daughter of Count Bella- 
7nonte, ambassador from France to James I. She died in 1605. 

Tomb of Mildred Cecil, Lady Burleigh, one of the four learned 
daughters of Sir Anthony Cooke, 1589. and Anne Vere, Countess of 
Oxford, 1588, the wife and daughter 01 the great Lord Burleigh. 
An enormous Corinthian tomb, twenty-four feet high. The figure of 
Lady Burleigh lies on a sarcophagus ; at her head and feet are her 
only son Robert Cecil, and her three grand-daughters, Elizabeth, 
Bridget, and Susannah. In a recess is the recumbent figure of the 
Countess of Oxford. In the upper stoiy Lord Burleigh is seen, kneel- 
ing in his robes — the effigy in which Sir Roger de Coverley was " well 
pleased to see the statesman Cecil on his knees." The epitaphs are 
from his pen, and tell how " his eyes were dim with tears for those 
who were dear to him beyond the whole race of womankind." Lord 
Burleigh himself lay in state here, but was buried at Stamford. 



CHAPEL OF HENRY VH. abj 

Sir G. Fane (i6i8), and his wife Elizabeth le Despencer. A mural 
monument, with kneeling statues. 

Nicholas, Lord Carew (1470), the friend of Edward FV., and his wife. 
A plain altar-tomb. 

Nicholas Bagnall, an infant of two months old, "by his nvrs unfor- 
tvnately overlayed " (1687-8). A pedestal with a black pyramid and urn. 

* Anne Seymour, Duchess of Somerset (1587), widow of the great 
Protector, sister-in-law of Queen Jane, and aunt of Edward VI. She 
died aged ninety, far on in the reign of Elizabeth. The tomb was erected 
by her son, Lord Hertford, "in this doleful dutie carefull and diligent." 

Lady Jane Clifford, 1679. An odd square sarcophagus. 

* Sir Hu7nphrey Stanley (1505), who fought for Henry VII. at the 
Battle of Bosworth, where he was knighted on the field of battle. A 
brass of a figure in plate armour. 

Elizabeth Brooke (1591), wife of Sir Robert Cecil, son of the great 
Lord Burleigh. An altar-tomb. 

Returning to the aisle, on the left is the monument of Sir 
Robert Alton, the j.oet, Secretary to James L, 1638, with a 
noble bust. On the right is that of Sir Thomas Ingram^ 
Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, 167 1. Beneath the 
pavement lie Abbot Berkynge, Lord High Treasurer, 1246, 
and Sir John Golofre, 1396, second husband of Philippa, 
Duchess of York. 

We now reach the glorious portico which overarches the 
aisle under the Oratory of Henry V. Beneath it, in an awful 
gloom which is rendered more solemn by the play of golden 
light within, a grand flight of steps leads to the Chapel of 
Henry VII., erected under the care of Bolton, the Archi- 
tect-Prior of St. Bartholomew's, in the place of the Lady- 
Chapel of Henry HI.,* the burial-place of almost all the 
sovereigns from Henry VII. to George II., the finest 

* Found, by the excavations made at a recent funeral, to have been nearly of 
the same dimensions as the present Chapel. 



r64 WALKS IN LONDON. 

Perpendicular building in England, called by Leland "the 
mirac e of the world," — far finer than its rival, King's 
College at Cambridge. 

" The Chapel of Henry VII. is indeed well called by his name, for it 

breathes of himself through every part. It is the most signal example 
of the contrast between his closeness in life, and his ' magnificence in the 
structures he hath left to posterity ' — King's College Chapel, the Savoy, 
Westminster. Its very style was a reminiscence of his exile, being 
' learned in France ' by himself and his companion Fox. His pride in 
its grandeur was commemorated by the ship, vast for those times, 
which he built, ' of equal cost with his chapel,' 'which afterwards, in 
the reign of Mary, sank in the sea, and vanished in a moment.' 

" It was to be his chantry as well as his tomb, for he was determined 
not to be behind the Lancastrian princes in devotion ; and this unusual 
anxiety for the sake of a soul not too heavenward in its affections 
expended itself in the immense apparatus of services which he provided. 
Almost a second abbey was needed to contain the new establishment 
of monks, who were to sing in their stalls * as long as the world shall 
endure.' Almost a second shrine, surrounded by its blazing tapers, 
and shining like gold with its glittering bronze, was to contain his 
remains. 

" To the Virgin Mary, to whom the Chapel was dedicated, he had a 
special devotion. Her ' in all his necessities he had made his continual 
refuge ;' and her figure, accordingly, looks down upon his grave from 
the east end, between the apostolic patrons of the Abbey, Peter and 
Paul, with ' the holy company of heaven — that is to say, angels, arch- 
angels, patriarchs, prophets, apostles, evangelists, martyrs, confessors, 
and virgins,' to 'whose singular mediation and prayers he also trusted,' 
including the royal saints of Britain, St. Edward, St. Edmund, St. 
Oswald, St. Margaret of Scotland, who stand, as he directed, sculp- 
tured, tier above tier, on every side of the Chapel, some retained from 
the ancient Lady Chapel, the greater part the work of his own age. 
Round his tomb stand his nine ' accustomed avours or guardian 
saints,' to whom 'he calls and cries ' — ' St. Michael, St. John the Bap- 
tist, St. John the Evangelist, St. George, St. Anthony, St. Edward, 
St. Vincent, St. Anne, St. Mary Magdalene, and St. Barbara,' each 
with their peculiar emblems, — ' so to aid, succour, and defend him, 
that the ancient and ghostly enemy, nor none other evil or damnable 
spirit, have no power to invade him, nor with their wickedness to 
annoy him, but with holy prayers to be intercessors for him to his 
Maker and Redeemer.' These were the adjurations of the last me- 



CHAPEL OF HENRY VII, 265 

diaeval king, as the Chapel was the climax of the latest mediaeval archi- 
tecture. In the very urgency of the King's anxiety for the perpetuity 
of those funeral ceremonies, we seem to discern an unconscious pre- 
sentiment of terror lest their days were numbered." — Dean Stanley. 

It is said that on looking back from the portico of Henry 
VII.'s Chapel, tvery phase of Gothic architecture, from 
Henry HI, to Henry VH., may be seen. The glorious 
brass gates are adorned with all the badges of the founder — 
the fleur-de-lis, the portcullis and crown, the falcon and 
fetterlock, the thistle and crown, the united roses of York 
and Lancaster entwined with the crown, the initials R. H., 
the royal crown, and the three lions of England. The 
devices of Henry VH. are also borne by the angels sculp- 
tured on the frieze at the west end of the chapel. The 
windows have traces of the white roses of Lancaster and of 
the fleur-de-lis and H's with which they were once filled j 
from the end window the figure of Henry VH. looks down 
upon the whole. Seventy-three statues, whose " natural 
simplicity and grandeur of character and drapery" are 
greatly commended by Flaxman, surround the walls. 

" The very walls are \vrought into universal ornament, encrusted with 
tracery, and scooped into niches, crowded with statues of saints and 
martyrs. Stone seems, by the cunning labour of the chisel, to have 
been robbed of its weight and density, suspended aloft, as if by magic, 
and the fretted roof achieved with the wonderful minuteness and airy 
security of a cobweb." — Washington Irving. 

The stalls of the Knights of the Bath surround the chapel, 
with the seats for the esquires in front. The end stall on 
the right is decorated with a figure of Henry VI L The 
sculptures on the misereres are exceedingly quaint, chiefly 
monkish satires on the evii lives of their brethren. Amongst 
them are combats between monks and nuns, a monk seized 



266 WALKS IN LONDON. 

and a monk carried off by the devil, one boy whipping 
another, apes gathering nuts, and a fox in armour riding a 
goose. The best is the Judgment of Solomon -, the cause 
of the contention — the substitution of the dead for the living 
child — is represented with ludicrous simplicity, repeated on 
either side of the bracket. 

The centre of the chapel towards the east is occupied by 
the glorious tomb of Henry VI L (1509) and Elizabeth of 




Henry VII. (Wooden Figure). 

York (1503), "one of the stateliest and daintiest monuments 
of Europe," ^^^ executed for ;£'i,5oo by the famous Fietro 
Torrigiaiio ; the screen, which is no less beautiful, being the 
work of English artisans. The tomb is chiefly of bl ick 
marble, but the figures and surrounding alto-relievos and 
pilasters are of gilt copper. The figures, wrapped in long 
mantles which descend to the feet, are most simple and 

* Lord Bacon. 



CHAPEL OF HENRY VU. 267 

beautiful. They once wore crowns, which have been 
stolen. Within the screen, Henry enjoined by his will that 
there should be a small altar, enriched with relics— one of 
the legs of St. George and a great piece of the Holy Cross. 
Elizabeth of York, daughter of Edward IV., by whose 
marriage the long feud between the houses of York and 
Lancaster was terminated, died in childbirth at the Tower, 
on her birthday, February 11, 1502-3. Her sister, Lady 
Katharine Courtenay, was chief mourner at her magnificent 
funeral in the Abbey. Henry survived his wife for seven 
years, and died at Richmond in 1509. Bishop Fisher 
preached his funeral sermon, which was printed by Wynkyn 
de Worde, at the desire of the " king's moder." 



** In this chappel the founder thereof, with his queen, lieth interr'd, 

under a monument of solid brass, most richly gilded, and artificially 
carved. Some slight it for the cheapness, because it cost but a thou- 
sand pounds in the making thereof. Such do not consider it as the 
work of so thrifty a prince, who would make a httle money go far ; 
besides that it was just at the turning of the tide (as one may term it) 
of money, which flowed after the finding out of the West Indies, 
though ebbing before." — Fuller's Worthies, 

Henry VII. " was of a high mind, and loved his own will and his own 
way ; as one that revered himself, and would reign indeed. Had he 
been a private man he would have been termed proud. But in a wise 
prince, it was but keeping of distance, which indeed he did towards 

all To his confederates he was constant and just, but not 

open He was a prince, sad, virtuous, and full of thoughts and 

secret observations, and full of notes and memorials of his own hand, 

especially touching persons No doubt, in him, as in all men, 

and most of all in him, his fortune wrought upon his nature, and his 
nature upon his fortune. He attained to the crown, not only from a 
private fortune, which might endow him with moderation; but also 
from the fortune of an exiled man, which had quickened in him all seeds 
of observation and industry. And his times being rather prosperous 
than calm, had raised his confidence by success, but almost marred his 
nature by troubles." — Bacon's Life of Henry VIL 



268 WALKS IN LONDON. 

In the same vault with Henry and Elizabeth rests the 
huge coffin oi James I. (1625). His funeral sermon was 
preached by Dean Williams, who compared him to Solomon 
in eight particulars ! 

In front of the tomb of his grandparents is the restored 
altar which marks the burial-place of King Edward VI. 
(1553), who died at Greenwich in his fifteenth year — the 
good and strangely learned prince of whom Hooker says that 
" though he died young, he lived long, for life is in action" 
The ancient altar — a splendid work of Torrigiano — was 
destroyed in the Civil Wars, but part of the frieze was found 
in 1869 in the young king's grave, and has been let into the 
modern altar. It is admirable carving of the Renaissance, 
and shows the Tudor roses and the lilies of France inter- 
woven with a scroll-work pattern. On the coffin-plate of 
the young king is inscribed — after his royal titles — " On 
earth under Christ of the Church of England and Ireland 
supreme head" — having been evidently engraved during 
the nine days' reign of Lady Jane Grey. The revived altar 
was first used in 1870, on the strange occasion when Dean 
Stanley administered the Sacrament to the revisers of the 
New Testament — " representatives of almost every form of 
Christian belief in England " — before they commenced their 
labours. 

Inserted in this altar of toleration, by a quaint power of 
seeing threads of connection where they are not generally 
apparent, are — a fragment of an Abyssinian altar brought 
from Magdala in 1868; a fragment of a Greek Church in 
Damascus destroyed in the Christian massacre of i860; a 
fragment of the high altar of Canterbury, destroyed when 
the cathedral was burnt in 11 74. 



CHAPEL OF HENRY VH. 369 

Making the circuit of the chapel from the right, we see in 
the pavement the inscribed graves of — 

Henry Frederick, Duke of Cumberland {i']<)0), fourth son of Frederick, 
Prince of Wales, the hero of CxLlloden. 

Caroline (1757), third daughter, and Amelia (1786), second daughter, 
of George II. 

Louisa (1768), third daughter of Frederick, Prince of Wales, and 
Edward, Duke of York {1769), his second son, who died at Monaco. 

Queen Caroline of Anspach (1737), buried here with Handel's 
newly composed anthem, "When the ear heard her, then it blessed 
her," &c. 

King George II. (1760), the last sovereign buried at Westminster, 
who desired that his dust might mingle \vith that of his beloved wife, 
in accordance with which one side ot each of the cofl&ns was with- 
drawn, and they rest together. 

We now reach a chantry, separated from the chapel by 
a screen, of which only the basement remains, containing 
the gigantic monument of — 

Ludovic Stuart^ Duke of Richmond and Lennox (1623-4), cousin of 
James I., I^ord Chamberlain, and Lord High Admiral of Scotland. 
Huge figures of Faith, Hope, Prudence, and Charity support the 
canopy. The monument was erected by the Duke's widow, who is 
buried here with all his family. Here also rest the natural son of 
Charles II. and the Duchess of Portsmouth, who was created Duke of 
Richmond on the extinction of the former family, and his widow, "La 
belle Stuart " of lax morality, whose effigy, by her own request, was 
placed by her tomb after death " as weU done in wax as could be, 
under crown glass and none other," wearing the robes which she bore 
at the coronation of Queen Anne, and accompanied by the parrot 
" which lived with her grace forty years and survived her only a few 
days." The black marble pyramid at the foot of the tomb commemo- 
rates the infant Esme, Duke of Richmond. 

" One curious feature in the tomb deserves notice. In the inscrip- 
tion the date of the year of the Duke's death is apparently omitted, 
though the month and day are mentioned. The year, however, is 
given in what is called a chronogram. The Latin translation of the 



270 WALK'S IN LONDON. 

verse in the Bible, * Know ye not that a prince and a great man has 
this day fallen ? " (the words uttered by David in his lament over Abner,) 
contains fourteen Roman numeral letters, and these being elongated 
into capitals are MDCWVIIIIIIII, which give the date 1623. It is 
remarkable that words so appropriate to this nobleman shoiild contain 
the date for this identical year, and it shows much ingenuity on the 
part of the writer of the inscription that he should have discovered it." 
— The Builder, June 19, 1875. 

We now come to the first of the three eastern chapels. 
On the left is the tomb, by Westmacott, of Antoine, Due de 
Montpensier, brother of Louis Philippe, who died in exile 
at Salthill, 1807. The inscription is by General Dumouriez. 
This is the only monument placed in the Abbey for two 
centuries which is in accordance with the taste in which it 
was built. In the same vault with the Duke lay for some 
time Louise of Savoy, queen of Louis XVIII., who died in 
exile at Hartwell in Buckinghamshire. Her remains were 
removed to Sardinia in 181 1. 

In the centre of the chapel is the grave of Lady Augusta Stanley 
(1876), " for thirty years the devoted servant of Queen Victoria, and of 
the queen's mother and children." 

The Central Eastern Chapel was the burial-place of the 
magnates of the Commonwealth, who, with few exceptions, 
were exhumed after the Restoration. The bodies of Crom- 
well, his son-in-law Ireton, and Bradshaw, the regicide judge, 
were hanged at Tyburn ; the mother of Cromwell, with 
most of her kindred and friends, was buried in a pit near 
St. Margaret's Church ; Elizabeth Claypole, the favourite 
daughter of the Protector, was left in peace. Here were 
once buried — 

Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector, 1658. 
General Henry Ireton, 1651. 



CHAPEL OF HENRY VIL 2.7X 

Elizabeth Cromwell, mother of the Protector, 1654, 

Jane Desborough, sister of the Protector, 1656. 

Anne Fleetwood, daughter of the Protector. 

Robert Deane, 1653. 

Humphrey Mackworth, 1 654. 

Sir William Constable, 1655. 

Admiral Robert Blake, 1657. 

Dennis Bond, 1658. 

John Bradshaw, 1659. 

Mary Bradshaw, 1659. 

The vault vacated when the rebels were exhumed was 
afterwards used as the burial-place of James Butler^ Duke 
of Ormond (1688), and all his family. Here also were 
interred many of the illegitimate descendants of Charles II., 
including — 

The Earl of DoncasteTy son of the Duke of Monmouth, 1673-4. 

Charles Fitzroy, Duke of Cleveland, 1 730. 

Charles Fitz Charles, Earl of Plymouth, who died at Tangiers, 
1680-81. 

Here also the Duke of Portland, the friend of William III., was 
buried (1709), with the Duke of Schomberg and several of his family. 

In the Third Chapel lie— 

Right. Sheffield, Duke of Buckingham (1721), and his duchess 
Catherine, who was so proud of being the illegitimate daughter of 
James II. and Catherine Sedley, and who kept the anniversary of the 
martyrdom of her royal grandfather Charles I. seated in a chair of state, 
attended by her women in weeds.* The monument is by Scheemakers^ 
who has represented the duchess in English dress, while the duke is in 
Roman armour. In the reign of Charles II. he was general of the 
Dutch troop of horse. Governor of Kingston Castle upon HuU, and 
First Gentleman of the Bedchamber ; in that of James II., Lord 
Chamberlain ; in that of Queen Anne, Lord Privy Seal, and President 
of the Council. The concluding Unes of his self-composed epitaph 
are striking — " Dubius sed non improbus vixi ; incertus morior, non 
perturbatus. Humanum est nescire et errare. Deo confido omnipotent!, 
benevolentissimo. Ens entium miserere mei." Before the words 
"Deo confido/' *• Christum adveneror " was originally inserted, but 
• Walpole's " K eminiscences." 



272 WALKS IN LONDON, 

was effaced by Dean Atterbury, on the ground that " adveneror " 
was not a sufficient expression as applied to Christ. 

Opposite is preserved the wooden Pulpit from which Cranmer 
preached at the coronation and funeral of his royal godson, Edward VI. 

Beneath it, alone, in a spacious vault, lies the body of Queen Ann6 
of Denmark (1619-20), wife of James I., who died at Somerset House. 
She never had any monument, but her hearse stood over her grave till 
the Commonwealth. 

Hard by is the grave of John Campbell, Duke of Argyle and 
Greenwich (1743), whose monument we have seen in the south transept. 
With him lies his daughter, Lady Mary Coke (181 1), "the 'lively little 
lady ' who, in the ' Heart of Midlothian,' banters her father after the 
interview with Jeanie Deans." * 

The next Chapel^ with a low screen, has its western 
decorations ruined by the tomb of — 

George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham (1628), the passionately loved 
favourite of James I., murdered by Felton, and his duchess. His 
children kneel at his head. Several of his sons, including Francis and 
George, whose handsome features are well known from Vandyke's 
noble picture, rest in their father's grave, together with the last duke, 
the George Villiers who was the " Ziniri " of Dryden, and whose 
death-bed is described in the lines of Pope. 

" Had the Duke of Buckingham been blessed with a faithful friend, 
qualified with wisdom and integrity, the duke would have committed as 
few faults and done as transcendent worthy actions as any man in that 
age in Europe." — Clarendon. 

"After Buckingham's death, Charles the First cherished his memory 
warmly as his life, advanced his friends, and designed to raise a magni- 
ficent monument to his memory ; and if any one accused the duke, the 
king always imputed the fault to liimself. He very often said the 
world was much mi-staken in the duke's character; for it was commonly 
thought the duke ruled his majesty ; but it was much the contrary, 
having been his most faithful and obedient servant in all things, as the 
king said he would make sensibly appear to the world." — Disraeli. 
Curiosities of Literature. 

Near the next pillar is the grave of Elizabeth Claypole, 
second daughter of OUver Cromwell, the only member of 

• Stanley. 



SOUTH AISLE, HENRY VH.'S CHAPEL, 273 

the Protector's family allowed to remain in the Abbey, as 
being both a royalist and a member of the Church of 
England. In descending the chapel on this side we pass 
the graves of — 

Frederick, Prince of Wales, father of George III., 1 75 1. 

Augusta of Saxe-Gotha, Princess of Wales, 1772. 

Elizabeth Caroline (1759), and Frederick William (1765), children 
of the Prince of Wales. 

William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland, third son of George II., 
1765. 

Entering the South Aisle of the Chapel, we find, beneath 
the exquisite fan roof, three noble tombs. 

* Margaret Stuart, Countess of Lennox {1577), first cousin of Queen 
Elizabeth, being daughter of the Scottish queen, Margaret Tudor, by 
her second marriage with the Earl of Angus. Lord Thomas Howard 
was imprisoned for Hfe, for venturing to fall in love with her at the 
Court of Anne Boleyn, and she was married, in her thirtieth year, to 
the Earl of Lennox. The epitaph tells how she "had to her great- 
grandfather King Edward IV. ; to her grandfather, King Henry VII. ; 
to her uncle, King Henry VIII. ; to her cousin-german. King 
Edward VI. ; to her brother. King James V. of Scotland ; to her 
son (Damley), King Henry I. of Scotland ; to her grandchild, King 
James VI. (of Scotland, and I. of England)." The tomb is of 
alabaster. It bears the effigy of Margaret in robes of state, with a 
small ruff and a close coif with a coronet over it. Below are the 
effigies of her four sons and four daughters (including that of Henry 
Damley, King of Scotland, which once had a crown above its head, 
and that of Charles Lennox, father of the " Ladie Arbele " (Arabella 
Stuart). She died in poverty, but was buried here in great state by 
Elizabeth. An iron railing, decorated with all the armorial bearings 
of the family, once surrounded this monument. 

* Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots, 1 587. After her execution at Fother- 
ingay she was buried at Peterborough, but was brought thence in 1606 
by her son James L, who desired that "hke honour might be done to 
the ]>ody of his dearest mother, and a like monument be extant of her, 
that had been done to his dear sister, the late Queen Elizabeth." In 
her second funeral she had " a translucent passage in the night through 
the city of London, by multitudes of torches, with a! the ceremonies 

VOL. II. T 



274 WALKS IN LONDON. 

and voices quires and copes could express, attended by many prelates 
and nobles." * The tomb is a noble work of the period, with an 
effigy by Cornelius Cure. The queen is represented as in her pictures, 
with small and delicate features. She wears a close coif, a laced ruff, 
a mantle fastened at the breast by a jewelled brooch, and high-heeled 
shoes ; at her feet the crowned lion of Scotland sits keeping guard. 

* Margaret Beaufort, Countess of Richmond and Derby, the great- 
granddaughter of John of Gaunt, " allied, by blood or affinity, to thirty 
kings and queens." By her first husband, Edmund Tudor, Earl of 
Richmond (son of Queen Catherine de Valois, whom rather than 
the Duke of Suffolk, she espoused by the advice — in a vision — of 
St. Nicholas, patron of wavering maidens), she was the mother of 
Henry VII. She married secondly Sir Humphrey Stafford ; and thirdly 
Thomas, Lord Stanley, who placed the crown of Richard III. on 
the head of her son after the Battle of Bosworth Field, and was 
created Earl of Derby by him. She died in 1578, at the time of the 
coronation of her grandson, Henry VIII. She was the foundress of St. 
John's and Christ's Colleges at Cambridge. Bishop Fisher (her chap- 
lain), who pleached her funeral sermon, told truly how " Every one that 
knew her, loved her ; and everything that she said or did became her." 
She was so imbued with the spirit of mediaeval times, that Camden 
records she would often say that — " on the condition that the princes 
of Christendom would combine and march against the common enemy, 
the Turk, she would willingly attend them, and be their laundress in 
the camp." Her effigy, the first work executed by the great Pietro 
Torrigiano in England, is nobly simple, but " executed in a grand 
and expressive naturalistic manner." f Her hands are uplifted in 
prayer, and the aged features are evidently modelled from nature. 
Her epitaph, by John Skelton, the poet-laureate, ends with a quaint 
curse upon all who shall spoil or take it away — 

" Qui laceret, violatve, rapit, praesens epitoma, 
Hunc laceretque voret, Cerberus, absque mora." 

(On the left) Catherine Shorter, Lady Walpolei.i'Jl'j), the first wife of 
Sir Robert, afterwards Earl of Orford. The figure is by Valori, after a 
Roman statue of " Modesty," and is beautiful, though injured by the too 
voluminous folds of its drapery. It was erected by her son, Horace 
Walpole. " She had beauty and wit without vice or vanity, and culti- 
vated the arts without affectation. She was devout, though without 
bigotry of any sect, and was without prejudice to any party; tho' 

• Wilson's " Hist, of the Reign of James I." ♦ Lubke. 



SOUTH AISLE, HENRY VU.'S CHAPEL, 275 

the -wife of a minister, whose power she esteemed but when she could 
employ it to benefit the miserable or reward the meritorious. She 
loved a private life, though born to shine in public, and was an orna- 
ment to courts, untainted by them."* 

(Left) General George Monk, Duke of Albemarle, the hero of the 
Restoration, whose ftineral was personally attended by Charles II. 
The monument, by Scheemakers and Ke^it, was erected, as the epitaph 
states, in compliance with the wish of Christopher, Duke of Albemarle, 
in 1720. The figure of General Monk is represented in armour, with- 
out a helmet ; a mourning female figure leans upon the medallion of 
Duke Christopher. 

In front of the step of the ancient altar are buried with- 
out monuments — 

King Charles II. (1685), buried " without any manner of pomp, and 
soon forgotten." t His waxen image stood on the grave as late as 1815. 
Queen Mary II., 1694. 
King William III., 1 702. 
Prince George of Denmark, 1708. 
Queen Anne, 17 14. 

Thoresby, the antiquary, was present when the vault 
was opened to receive the remains of Queen Anne. 

" It was affecting to see the silent relics of the great monarchs, 
Charles II., William and Mary, and Prince George ; next whom 
remains only one space to be filled with her late Majesty Queen Anne. 
This sight was the more affecting to me, because, when young, I saw 
in one balcony six of them that were afterwards kings and queens of 
Great Britain, all brisk and hearty, but now entered on a boundless 
eternity ! There were then present King Charles and his Queen 
Catherine, the Duke of York, the Prince and Princess of Orange, and 
the Princess Anne." — Thoresby' s Diary. 

Beneath the pavement in other parts of the chapel are 
buried the following members of the Stuart royal family : — 

• Epitaph, by Horace Walpole. 

k Evelyn's Diary. He was probably thus quietly buried to evade disputes as to 
the relig^ion in which he died. 



276 WALKS IN LONDON. 

Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales (1612), son of James I. 

*• A monument all of pure gold," says Stow, "were too little for a 
prince of suclf high hope and merit." 

" The short life of Henry was passed in a school of prowess, and 
amidst an academy of literature." — Disraeli. 

Arabella Stuart (1615), niece of James I. 

Charles, eldest son of Charles I. (1629), and Anne (1637), the fat 
baby in the famous picture of the children of Charles I. 

" She was a very pregnant lady above her age, and died in her 
infancy when not full four years old. Being minded by those about 
her to call upon God even when the pangs of death were upon her ; 
* I am not able,' saith she, ' to say my long prayer (meaning the Lord's 
Prayer) ; but I will say my short one, Lighten mine eyes, O Lord, lest 
I sleep the sleep of death.' This done, this little lamb gave up the 
ghost." — Fuller's Worthies. 

Henry, Duke of Gloucester (1660), son of Charles I., the boy who on 
his father's knees at St. James's, the night before his execution, said 
that he would be torn in pieces rather than be made king while his 
brothers were alive. He died of the small-pox at Whitehall. 

Mary, Princess of Orange (1660), eldest daughter of Charles L 
" She came over to congratulate the happiness of her brother's mira- 
culous restitution ; when, behold, sickness arrests this royal princess, 
no bail being found by physick to defer the execution of her death. On 
the 31st of February following she was honourably (though privately) 
interred at Westminster, and no eye so dry but willingly afforded a 
tear to bemoan the loss of so worthy a princess." — Fuller's Worthies. 

Elizabeth, Queen of Bohemia (1662), daughter of James I. 

1662. Jan. 17. "This night was buried in Westminster Abby the 
Queene of Bohemia, after all her sorrows and afflictions, being come to 
die in the arms of her nephew the King." — Evelyn's Diary. 

Prince Rupert (1682), son of the Queen of Bohemia. " The Prince " 
of the Cavaliers, " who, after innumerable toils and variety of heroic 
actions both by land and sea, spent several years in sedate studies, and 
the prosecution of chemical and philosophical experiments." He died 
in his sixty-third year, at his house in Spring Gardens, and was 
honoured with a very magnificent public funeral. 

Anne Hyde, daughter of Edward, Earl of Clarendon, married in 
1659 to the Duke of York, afterwards James IL, and ten of her 



NORTH AISLE, HENRY VU'S CHAPEL. 277 

cnildren. She died in 1671, leaving two of her children living, 
Mary II. and Anne. 

William, Duke of Gloucester, the precocious and last surviving child 
of Princess (afterwards Queen) Anne, who died at "Windsor just after 
his eleventh birthday, and seventeen other of her children. 

We may now turn to the North Aisle. At its western 
extremity is an enclosure used as a vestry for the chanting 
priests, who were to say the ten thousand masses enjoined 
by the will of Henry VII. for the repose of his soul. Here 
was formerly kept " the effigies of General Monk." The 
monuments include — 

(Right) Charles Montague, Earl of Halifax (17 1 5), the great patron 
of the literary men of his time, " the second great Maecenas." * 

In the vault of his patron rests Joseph Addison, 17 19 (his monument 
is in the south transept). The funeral of Addison gave rise to the noble 
lines of TickeU — 

" Can I forget the dismal night that gave 

My soul's best part for ever to the grave ? 

How silent did his old companions tread. 

By midnight lamps, the mansions of the dead. 

Through breathing statues, then unheeded things, 

Through rows of warriors and through walks of kings ! 

What awe did the slow solemn knell inspire ; 

The pealing organ and the pausing choir ; 

The duties by the lawn-rob'd prelate pay'd ; 

And the last words, that dust to dust convey'd ! 

"While speechless o'er thy closing grave we bend ; 

Accept these tears, thou dear departed friend. 

Oh, gone for ever ! take this long adieu, 

And sleep in peace next thy lov'd Montague. 

****** 

Ne'er to these chambers, where the mighty rest. 
Since their foundation came a nobler guest ; 
Nor e'er was to the bower of bliss conveyed 
A fairer spirit or more welcome shade." f 

• Dr. ewell to Addison. British Poets, 

♦ Epistle to the Earl of Warwick. 



278 WALK'S IN LONDON. 

" His body lay in state in the Jerusalem Chamber, and was borne 
thence to the Abbey at dead of night. The choir sung a funeral hymn. 
Bishop Atterbury, one of those Tories who had loved and honoured 
the most accomplished of the Whigs, met the corpse, and led the proces- 
sion by torchlight, round the shrine of St. Edward and the graves of 
the Plantagenets, to the Chapel of Henry the Seventh. On the north 
side of that chapel, in the vault of the house of Albemarle, the coffin 
of Addison lies next to the coffin of Montague. Yet a few months, 
and the same mourners passed again along the same aisle. The same 
sad anthem was again chanted. The same vault was again opened ; 
and the coffin of Craggs was placed close to the coffin of Addiscn." — 
Macaulay. 

James Craggs, the Secretary of State, who has a monument at the 
west end of the Abbey, was present at Addison's funeral, and was 
immediately after buried in the same grave. 

** O ! must I then (now fresh my bosom bleeds, 
And Craggs in death to Addison succeeds) 
The verse, begun to one lost friend, prolong, 
And weep a second in th' unlinish'd song ? 

***** 
Blest pair, whose union future bards shall tell 
In future tongues, each other's boast, farewell. 
Farewell ! whom, join'd in fame, in friendship try'd. 
No chance could sever, nor the grave divide." * 

(Right) George Savile, Marquis of Halifax (1695), the statesman. 

" He was a man of a very great and ready wit ; fuU of life, and very 

pleasant ; much turned to satire He confessed he could not 

swallow down everything that divines imposed on the world : he was a 
Christian in submission : he believed as much as he could, and he 
hoped that God would not lay it to his charge, if he could not digest 
iron, as an ostrich did, or take into his belief things that must burst 

him But with relation to the public, he went backwards and 

forwards, and changed sides so often, that in conclusion no one trusted 

him When he talked to me as a philosopher, of his contempt 

of the world, I asked him, what he meant by getting so many new 
titles, which I called the hanging himself about with bells and tinsel. 
He had no other excuse for it but this, that since the world were such 
fools as to value those matters, a man must be a fool for company." — 
Burnet. Hist, of His Own Time. 

* TickeU. 



NORTH AISLE, HENRY VH. S CHAPEL. 279 

In the centre of the aisle is the noble tomb of — 

* Queen Elizabeth (1602), who died at Richmond in the forty-fifth year 
of her reign, and the seventieth of her age. The monument is by 
Maximilian Poultraine and Joh^t de Critz. Beneath a lofty canopy 
supported by ten Corinthian pillars, the figure of the queen who was 
"one day greater than man, the next less than woman," is lying 
upon the low basement on a slab supported by lions. The effigy repre- 
sents her as an aged woman, wearing a close coif, from which the hair 
descends in curls : the crown has been stolen. The tomb was once 
surrounded by a richly wrought railing covered with fleurs-de-lis and 
roses, ^vith the initials E R interspersed. This, with all the small 
standards and armorial bearings at the angles, forming as much a part 
of the monument itself as the stonework, was most unjustifiably 
removed by Dean Ireland.* 

" Thys queene's speech did winne all affections, and hir subjects did 
trye to shew all love to hir commandes ; for she would say, * hir state 
did require hir to commande, what she knew hir people woude willingly 
do from their owne love to hir.' Herein she did shewe her wisdome 
fuUie ; for who did chuse to lose her confidence ; or who woude wyth- 
olde a shewe of love and obedience, when their Sovereign said it was 
their own choice, and not hir compulsion } . . . We did all love hir, 
for she said she loved us, and muche wysdome she shewed in thys 
matter. She did well temper herself towards all at home, and put at 
variance all abroad ; by which means she had more quiet than hir 
neighbours. . . . When she smiled, it was a pure sunshine, that every- 
one did chuse to baske in, if they could ; but anon came a storm from 
a sudden gathering of clouds, and the thunder fell in wondrous manner 
on all alike. I never did fynde greater shew of understandinge and 
learninge, than she was blest wythe, and whoever liveth longer than I 
can, will look backe and become laudator tetnporis acti" — Sir John 
Haringion's Letter to Robert Markham in 1606, three years after the 
death of Elizabeth. 

In the same tomb is buried Mary L (1558). Her obsequies, con- 
ducted by Bishop Gardiner, were the last funeral service celebrated in 
the Abbey according to the Roman Catholic ritual, except the requiem 
ordered by Elizabeth for Charles V. The stones of the altars in 

* The almost adoration with which Elizabeth was regarded after her death 
caused her so-called "monument," with a metrical epitaph, curiously varied, to 
be set up in all the principal J.ondon churches ; notably so in St. Saviour's, 
Southwark; St. Mary Woolnoth ; St. 1 awrence Jewry; St. Mildred, Poultry; 
and St. Andrew Undershaft. Several of these " monuments " still exist. 



28o WALKS IN LONDON, 

Heiiiy Vn.'s Chapel destroyed at the Reformation were used in her 
vault. At her funeral " all the people plucked down the hangings and 
the armorial bearings round about the abbey, and every one tore him 
a piece as large as he could catch it." James I. wrote the striking 
inscription upon the monument — "Regno consort es et urnS, hie 
obdormimus EHzabetha et Maria sorores, in spe resurrectionis." " In 
those words," says Dean Stanley, "the long war of the English 
Reformation is closed." 

* The eastern end of this aisle has been called the Innocents'' Corner. 
In its centre is the tomb erected in 1674 by Charles II. over the bones 
found at the foot of the staircase in the Tower, supposed to be those 
of the murdered boys, Edward V. and Richard, Duke of York. 

* On the left is Princess Mary, third daughter of James I. (1607), who 
died at two years old, about whom her Protestant father was wont to 
say that he " would not pray to the Virgin Mary, but for the Virgin 
Mary." * Her epitaph tells how she, " received into heaven in early 
infancy," found joy for herself, but "left longings " to her parents. 

" Such was the manner of her death, as bred a kind of admiration in 
us all that were present to behold it. For whereas the new-tuned 
organs of speech, by reason of her great and wearisome sickness, had 
been so greatly weakened, that for the space of twelve or fourteen 
hours at least, there was no sound of any word breaking from her lips ; 
yet when it sensibly appeared that she would soon make a peaceable 
end of a troublesome life, she sighed out these words, *I go, I go,' and 
when, not long after, there was something to be ministered unto her 
by those that attended her in the time of her sickness, fastening her 
eye upon them with a constant look, she repeated, ' Away, I go ! ' 
And yet a third time, almost immediately before she offered herself, a 
sweet virgin sacrifice, unto Him that made her, faintly cried, * I go, I 
go.' . . . And whereas she had used many other words in the time of 
her extremity, yet now, at the last, she did aptly utter these, and none 
but these." — Funeral Sermon for the Princess Mary^ by J. Leech, 
preached in Henry VII. 's Chapel, Sept. 23, 1607. 

*On the right is Princess Sophia (1606), fourth daughter of James L, 
who died at Greenwich three days after her birth. It is a charming 
little monument of an infant in her cradle — " a royal rose-bud, plucked 
by premature fate, and snatched away from her parents, that she 
might flourish again in the rosary of Christ." 

"This royal babe is represented sleeping in her cradle, wherewith 

• Fuller's '* Worthies," i. 490. 



NORTH AISLE OF CHOIR, 



2Sl 



vulgar eyes, especially of the weaker sex, are more affected fas level to 
their cognizance, more capable of what is pretty than what is pompous) 
than with all the magnificent monuments in Westminster." — Fuller's 
Worthies. 

At the foot of the steps leading to H'enry VII. 's* Chapel 




Chantr}- ot Henry V., Westminster. 



is the grave of Edward Hyde, Earl of Clarendoti (1673), 
grandfather of Queen Mary II. and Queen Anne, who died 
in exile at Rouen, having been impeached for high-treason. 
We must look back from the northern ambulatory upon the 
richly sculptured arch of Henry V.'s chantry. It is this arch 



282 WALKS IN LONDON. 

which was so greatly admired by Flaxman. The Corona- 
tion of Henry V. is here represented as it was performed 
in this church by Thomas Arundel, Archbishop of Canter- 
bury, and Henry Beaufort, the uncle of the king. Over 
the canopies which surmount the figures are the alternate 
badges of the Antelope and Swai\ (from the king's mother, 
co-heiress of the Bohuns, and the same animals appear on 
the cornices chained to a tree, on v:hich is a flaming cresset, 
a badge which was borne by Henry V. alone, and which was 
intended as typical of the light by which he hoped to " guide 
his people to follow him in all honour and virtue."* 

On the left are the beautiful tombs of Queen Eleanor and 
of Henry HI., and beyond these the simple altar-tomb of 
Edward I. On the right are the tombs of — 

William Pulteney, Earl of Bath (1767), by Wilton. 
Admiral Holmes, 1761. 

Entering the Chapel of St. Paul^ we see before us the 

noble altar-tomb of — 

* Sir Giles Daubeny (1507) and his wife Elizabeth. He was Lord 
Lieutenant of Calais and Chamberlain to Henry VII. His effigy, 
which is executed with the minutest care, is in plate armour, with the 
insignia of the Order of the Garter. Observe the kneeling and weep- 
ing monks in rehef on the soles of his shoes. 

Near this is the stupid colossus, whose introduction here 
is the most crying evidence of the want of taste in our 
generation: a monument wholly unsuited in its character 
to the place, and in its association with its surroundings — 
which, on its introduction, burst through the pavement by 
its immense weight, laid bare the honoured coffins beneath, 

• See Brooke in Gough's " Sepulchral Monuments," cut xv. 



CHAPEL OF ST, PAUL. 283 

and fell into the vaults below, but unfortunately was not 

broken to pieces. 

James Watt (1819), "who directing the force of an original genius 
early exercised in philosophic research to the improvement of the 
steam-engine, enlarged the resources of his country and increased the 
power of man, and rose to an eminent place among the most illustrious 
followers of science and the real benefactors of the world." The in- 
scription is by Lord Brougham, the statue by Chantrey. 

Making the circuit of the chapel from the right, we see the 
monuments of — 

* Li dowick Rohsart (143 1), and his wife Elizabeth, heiress of Bartho- 
lomew Bourchier, after his marriage with whom he was created Lord 
Bourchier. He was distinguished in the French wars under Henry V., 
and made the king's standard-bearer for the courage which he displayed 
upon the field of Agincourt. On the marriage of Henry V. to Katharine 
de Valois he was immediately presented to the queen, and appointed 
the especial guardian of her person. His tomb, which forms part of the 
screen of the chapel, is, architecturally, one of the most interesting in 
the Abbey. It has an oaken roof in the form called "en dos d'ane," 
and the whole was once richly gilt and coloured, the rest of the screen 
being powdered with gold Catherine-wheels. 

Anne, Lady Cottington (1633), a bust greatly admired by Strype for 
its simplicity and beauty. Beneath is the reclining effigy of Francis^ 
Lord Cottington (1652), ambassador for Charles I. in Spain, who "for 
his faithfull adherence to ye crowne (ye usyrpers prevayling) was 
forc't to fly his country, and, during his exile, dyed at Valladolid." 
Clarendon * describes him — 

" A very wise man, by the long and great experience he had in busi- 
ness of all kinds ; and by his natural temper, which was not liable to 
any transport of anger, or any other passion, but could bear contradic- 
tion, and even reproach, without being moved, or put out of his way : 
for he was very steady in pursuing what he proposed to himself, and 
had a courage not to be frighted with any opposition. . . . He was of 
an excellent humour, and very easy to live with ; and, under a grave 
countenance, covered the most of mirth, and caused more than any 
man of the most pleasant disposition. He never used anybody ill, 
but used many very well for whom he had no regard; his greatest 

• vi. 465, d67. 



284 WALKS IN LONDON, 

fault was, that he could dissemble, and make men believe that he loved 
them very well, when he cared not for them. He had not very tender 
affections, nor bowels apt to yearn at all objects which deserved com- 
passion : he was heartily weary of the world, and no man was more 
willing to die ; which is an argument that he had peace of conscience. 
He left behind him a greater esteem of his parts than love to his 
person." 

Frances Sidney, Countess of Sussex (aunt of Sir Philip), 1589. She 
was the foundress of Sidne3 -Sussex College at Cambridge. Her recum- 
bent statue affords a fine specimen of the rich costume of the period : 
at her feet is her crest, a porcupine, in wood. 

Dudley Carleton, Viscount Dorchester (1631), Secretary of State 
under Charles I.* This tomb was executed by Nicholas Stone for 
^200. 

Sir Thomas Bromley (1587), who succeeded Sir Nicholas Bacon as 
Lord-Chancellor in the reign of Elizabeth, and presided at the trial of 
Mary, Queen of Scots. The alabaster statue represents the chancellor 
in his robes : the official purse appears at the back : his children, by 
Lady Elizabeth Fortescue, kneel at an altar beneath. 

Sir James Fullerton (1630-31), and Mary his wife. He was first 
Gentleman of the Bedchamber to Charles I. " He dyed fuller of faith 
than of feare, fuller of resolv'ion than of paiennes ; fuller of honvr 
than of dayes." 

[Near the foot of this monument Archbishop Usher was buried in 
state, March, 1655-56, at the cost of Oliver Cromwell. He died at 
Reigate. His chaplain, Nicholas Barnard, preached his funeral ser- 
mon in the Abbey on the text, " ' And Samuel died, and aU the 
Israelites were gathered together.' "] 

Sir John Puckering (1596), who prosecuted Mary, Queen of Scots, 
and became Keeper of the Great Seal under Elizabeth. The monu- 
ment was erected by his widow, who added her own statue ; their 
eight children kneel below. 

Sir Henry Belasyse of Brancepeth (17 17), " linealy descended from 
Belasius, one of the Norman Generals who came into England witk 
William the Conqueror and was knighted by him." The monument 
is by Scheemakers. 

• There are fine po traits of Dudley Carleton and his wife, by Cornelius Jansen, 
in the National Portrait Gallery. 



SHRINE OF ST. ERASMUS. 



285 



The entrance to the next chapel, or, more properly, the 
Shri/ie of St. Erasmus, is one of the most picturesque " bits " 
in the Abbey, dating from the time of Richard II. It is a 
low arch supported by clustered pillars. The shield on the 
right bears the arms of old France and England quarterly, 




tshrine ol St. Erasmus. 



viz. semee of fleurs-de-lis and three lions passant gard- 
ant, and that on the left the arms of Edward the Confessor. 
Above is " Sanctus Erasmus " in black (once golden) letters, 
and over this an exquisitely sculptured niche with a mould- 
ing of vine-leaves. The iron stanchion which held a lamp 
still remains by the entrance, and within are a holy-water 



286 WALKS IN LONDON, 

basin and a bracket for the statue of St. Erasmus (a Bishop 
of Campania martyred under Diocletian), with the rays 
which once surrounded the head of the figure still remaining 
on the wall. Near the entrance is the little monument ot 
/ane^ wife of Sir Clippesly Crewe (1639), with a curious 
relief representing her death. 

Through this shrine we enter the Chapel of St, John 
Baptist, of which the screen is formed by tombs of bishops 
and abbots. In the centre is the tomb of — 

Thomas Cecil, Earl of Exeter {1622), eldest son of Lord Burleigh, 
and his first wife Dor:thy Nevile. The vacant space on the earl's left 
side was intended for his second wife, Frances Brydges, but she indig- 
nantly refused to allow her effigy to lie on the left side, though she 
is buried with her husband. 

Making the circuit of the chapel from the right, we see 
the monuments of — 

Mrs. Mary Kendall (i 709-10), who " desired that her ashes might not 
be divided in death from those of her friend Lady Catharine Jones.* 

George Fascet, Abbot of Westminster {i^oo), an altar-tomb with a 
stone canopy. On it rests the stone coffin of Abbot Thomas Millyng, 
(1474), godfather of Edward V., who was made Bishop of Hereford by 
Edward IV. in reward for the services he had rendered to Elizabeth 
Woodville when she was in sanctuary at Westminster. His coffin 
was probably removed from the centre of the chapel when the tomb of 
the Earl of Exeter was placed there. 

Thomas Ruthall, Bishop of Durham (1522), who died at Durham 
Place in the Strand, from grief at having sent the inventory of all his 
great riches to Henry VIII. in mistake for the "Breviate of the State 
of the Land," which he had been commissioned to draw up. He had 
been Secretary to Henry VIL, and had made a good use of his immense 
wealth, having paid a third of the expense of building the great bridge 
of Newcastle-on-Tyne. The tomb once had a canopy. 

• The charitable daughter of the Earl of Ranelagh, who built a school at 
Chelsea for the education of the daughters of the Poor Chelsea Pensioners. 



CHAPEL OF ST. JOHN BAPTIST. 287 

Abbot Wtlliam of Colchester [1^20), who conspired, with the earls 
and dukes imprisoned in the abbot's house by Henry IV., in favour 
of the dethroned monarch, and swore to be faithful to death to King 
Richard.* The effigy is robed in rich vestments : there are two angels 
at the pillow, and a spaniel lies at the feet. 

(On the site of the altar) Henry Carey, Lord Hunsdon (1596), the 
first-cousin f and most faithful friend and chamberlain of Queen 
Elizabeth. He is said to have died of disappointment at the long 
delay in his elevation. The queen visited him on his death-bed, and 
commanded the robes and patent of an earl to be placed before him. 
" It is too late," he said, and declined the offered dignity. The Corinthian 
tomb of alabaster and marble, erected by his son, is one of the loftiest 
in England (36 feet). 

Thomas Carey (1649), second son of the Earl of Monmouth, a 
Gentleman of the Bedchamber to Charles I., who died of grief for the 
execution of his master. By this monument may be seen remains of 
the ancient lockers for the sacred vestments and plate. 

* (Beneath) Hugh and Mary Bohun, children of Humphrey Bohun, 
Earl of Hereford, and the Princess Isabella, sixth daughter of Edward I. 
A grey marble monument close to the wall, removed by Richard II. 
from the Chapel of the Confessor to make room for Anne of Bohemia. 

Colonel Edward Popham (1651), zxA Anne his wife. As he was 
a general in the Parliamentary army, his body was removed at the 
Restoration," but the monument was allowed to remain, on condition 
of the inscription being turned to the wall. 

Sir Thomas Vaughan, Treasurer to Edward IV. The tomb has a 
beautiful but mutilated brass. Under the canopy is preserved a frag- 
ment of the canopy of Bishop Ruthall's tomb. 

The banners which still wave in this chapel are those carried at the 
funerals of those members of the ancient Northumbrian family of 
Delaval who are buried beneath — Susannah, Lady Delaval, 1783; 
Sarah Hussey, Countess of Tyrconnel, 1800; John Hussey, Lord 
Delaval, 1806. 

Opposite the Chapel of St. John is the staircase by which 
visitors usually ascend to the centre of interest in the Abbey 

• See Shakspeare's Richard II. 

t Being: son of Mary Boleyn, who married William Carey, a penniless bul 
nobly born squire, without her father's consent. 



288 WALKS IN LONDON. 

— one may say in England — the Chapel of St, Edward the 
Confessor, 

*' Mortality, behold, and feare, 

What a change of flesh is here i 

Think how many royall bones 

Sleep within these heaps of stones ; 

Here they lye, had realmes, had lands, 

Who now want strength to stir their hands ; 

Where from their pulpits seal'd with dust. 

They preach, ' In greatnesse is no trust.* 

Here's an acre sown indeed. 

With the richest, royall'st seed, 

That the earth did ere suck in, 

Since the first man died for sin : 

Here the bones of birth have cry'd, 

* Though gods they were, as men they dy'd : * 

Here all souls, ignoble things, 

Dropt from the ruin'd sides of kings. 
Here's a world of pomp and state 
Buried in dust, once dead by fate." 

Francis Beaumont, 1586 — 1616. 
" A man may read a sermon, the best and most passionate that ever 
man preached, if he shall but enter into the sepulchres of kings. . . . 
Where our kings have been crowned, their ancestors lie interred, and 
they must walk over their grandsire's head to take his crown. There 
is an acre sown with royal seed, the copy of the greatest char-e, from 
rich to naked, from ceiled roofs to arched coffins, from living luce gods 
to die like men. There is enough to cool the flames of lust, to abate 
ihe heights of pride, to appease the itch of covetous desires, to sully 
and dash out the dissembling colours of a lustful, artificial, and imagi- 
nary beauty. There the warlike and the peaceful, the fortunate and 
the miserable, the beloved and the despised princes mingle their dust, 
and pay down their symbol of mortality, and tell all the world, that, 
when we die, our ashes shall be equal to kings', and our accounts 
easier, and our pains or our crowns shall be less." — Jeremy Taylor's 
Holy Dying, ch. i. sec. 1 1. 

This chapel, more than any other part of the Abbey, 
remains as it was left by its second founder, Henry III. 
He made it a Holy of Holies to contain the shrine of his 



CHAPEL OF EDWARD THE CONFESSOR. 289 

sainted predecessor. For this he moved the high altar 
westward, and made the choir project far down into the 
nave, like the coro of a Spanish cathedral ; for this he raised 
behind the high altar a mound of earth, " the last funeral 
tumulus in England." For this he imported from Rome 
" Peter, the Roman citizen " (absurdly supposed by Wal- 
pole and Virtue to be the famous mosaicist Pietro Caval- 
lini, who was not born till 1279, six years after the 
date of the shrine), who has left us the pavement glow- 
ing with peacock hues of Opus Alexandrinum, which recalls 
the pavements of the Roman basilicas, and the twisted 
pillars of the shrine itself, which are like those of the 
cloisters in S. Paolo and S. Giovanni Laterano. 

Edward the Confessor died in the opening days of 1066, 
when' his church at Westminster had just been consecrated 
in the presence of Edith his queen. He was buried before 
the high altar with his crown upon his head, a golden chain 
and crucifix around his neck, and his pilgrim's ring upon his 
finger. Tlius he was seen when his cotfin was opened by 
Henry I. in the presence of Bishop Gundulf, who tried to 
steal a hair from his white beard. Thus he was again seen by 
Henry II., in whose reign he was transferred by Archbishop 
Becket to a new and " precious feretry," just after his 
canonization (Feb. 7, 1161) by Pope Alexander III., who 
enjoined " that his body be honoured here on earih, as his 
soul is glorified in heaven." Henry III. also looked upon 
the " incorrupt " body, before its translation to its present 
resting-place, on the shoulders of the royal Plantagenet 
princes, whose own sepulchres were afterwards to gather 
around it. The body lies in a stone coffin, iron-bound, 
within the shrine of marble and mosaic. It appears from 

VOL. IL U 



290 WALKS IN LONDON, 

an illumination in the " Life of St. Edward " in the Univer- 
sity Library at Cambridge that, after his canonization, one 
end of the shrine was for some time left open, that sick 
persons might creep through and touch the coffin. The 
seven recesses at the sides of the shrine were intended for 
pilgrims to kneel under. The inlaid wooden wainscoting 
on the top was added by Abbot Feckenham in the reign of 
Mary I., by whom the shrine was restored, for it had been 
partially, if not wholly, displaced at the Dissolution. Be- 
fore that it probably had a Gothic canopy. At the corona- 
tion of James IL both shrine and coffin were broken by 
the fall of some scaffolding. It was then robbed for the 
last time. Henry Keepe, who wrote the " Monumenta 
Westmonasteriensia," relates that he himself put in his 
hand and drew forth the chain and crucifix of the Con- 
fessor, which were accepted by the last of the Stuart kings. 
The shrine, which was one of the most popular points of 
pilgrimage before the Reformation, is still the object of 
pilgrimages with Roman Catholics. Around the 'Confessor 
lie his nearest relations. On his left rests his wife, " Edith^ 
of venerable memory" (1073), the daughter of Earl God- 
win, and sister of Harold. On his right (moved from 
the old Chapter-house by Henry HL) lies his great-niece, 
another Edith (11 18), whose Saxon name was changed to 
the Norman Maud, the daughter of Malcolm Canmore of 
Scotland, granddaughter of Edward Atheling, and wife of 
Henry I. She had been accustomed frequently to pass days 
and nights together, kneeling, bare-footed and dressed in 
haircloth, before her uncle's shrine, and had herself the 
reputation of a saint. She was " the very mirror of piety, 
humility, and princely bounty," says Florence of Wor- 



CHAPEL OF EDWARD THE CONFESSOR. 291 

cester. " Her virtues were so great," say the " Annals of 
Waverley," that " an entire day would not suffice to recount 
them." Before the shrine, as Pennant says, the spolia 
opima were offered, the Scottish regalia, and the sacred 
stone from Scone; and here the little Alphonso, son of 
Edward I., offered the golden coronet of Llewelyn, Prince 
of Wales.* Here also the unfortunate Joanna, widow of 
Henry IV., was compelled to make a public thank-offering 
for the victory of Agincourt, in which her brother and son- 
in-law were killed and her son taken prisoner. Behind 
the shrine, where the chantry of Henry V. now stands, 
were preserved the relics given by St. Edward to the 
church — a tooth of St. Athanasius, a stone which was be- 
lieved to have been marked by the last footprint of the 
Saviour at His Ascension, and a phial of the precious 
blood. 

The fantastic legend of the* Confessor is told in the four- 
teen rude sculptures on the screen which divides the 
chapel from the choir. We see — 

1. The Bishop and Nobles swear fealty to the yet unborn child of 

Queen Emma, wife of Ethelred the Unready. 

2. The child, Edward, is born at Islip in Oxfordshire. 

3. His Coronation on Easter Day, 1043. 

4. He sees the Devil dancing on the casks in which his tax of Dane- 

gelt was collected and decides to abolish it. 

5. He warns a scullion who has been stealing from his treasure-chest 

to escape before Hugolin his treasurer returns and catches him. 

6. He sees Our Saviour in a vision, standing on the altar of the 

church, where he is about to receive the sacrament. 

7. He has a vision of the King of Denmark, who is drowned on his 

way to invade England. 

8. The boys Tosti and Harold, brothers-in-law of the king, have a 

quarrel at ths king's table, prophetic of their future feuds. 

• Gougb. " Sepulchral EflBgies," i. 7. 



292 WALKS IN LONDON. 

9. The Confessor, seated in the midst of his courtiers, has a vision 
of the seven Sleepers of Ephesus, who turn suddenly from the 
right side to the left, portending great misfortunes. 

10. The Confessor meets with St. John the Evangelist as a pilgrim 

and beggar, and having no alms, presents him with a ring. 

11. The blind are restored to sight by the water in which the Confessor 

has washed. 

12. St. John meets two English pilgrims at Ludlow and bids them 

restore the ring to Edward, and warn him that within six 
months he would meet him in Paradise. 

13. The pilgrims deliver the ring and message to the king. 

14. Edward, warned of his approaching death, completes the dedica- 

tion of the Abbey.* 

On the left of the '^teps by which we ascended is the tomb 
of the founder, Henry III. (1272). 

«* Quiet King Henry III., our English Nestor (not for depth of 
brains, but for length of life), who reigned fifty-six years, in which term 
he buried all his contemporary princes in Christendom twice over. 
All the months in the year may be in a manner carved out of an April 
day ; hot, cold, dry, moist, fair,* foul weather being oft presented 
therein. Such the character of this king's life — certain only in uncer- 
tainty ; sorrowful, successful ; in plenty, in penury ; in wealth, in want ; 
conquered, conqueror." — Fuller's Church History, 

Henry died at Bury St. Edmunds on the day of St. Edmund 
of Canterbury. His body was brought to London in state 
by the Knights Templar,! whom he had first introduced 
into England, and his effigy was so splendidly attired " that," 
says Wykes, " he shone more magnificent when dead than 
he had appeared when living." On the day of St. Edmund, 
king and martyr, he was buried here before the high altar, in 
the coffin in which Henry II. had laid the Confessor, and 

• The date of this screen is uncertain, but it must have been later than the time 
of Richard II , as part of the canopy of his tomb has been cut away to make room 
for its stonework. The subjects of the sculptures are taken from Abbot Ailred'a 
" Life and Miracles of St. Edward," written in the time of Edward II, 

t See Gough, i. 58. 



CHAPEL OF EDWARD THE CONFESSOR. 293 

whence he himself had removed him. His son Edward, then 
returning from Palestine, who had lately heard of the death 
of his sons Henry and John, broke into passionate grief on 
hearing the news of this third bereavement — " God may 
give me more sons, but not another father." He brought 
from abroad the "diverse-coloured marbles and glittering 
stones," and '* the twisted or serpentine columns of the 
same speckled marble,"* with which the tomb was con- 
structed by " Peter, the Roman citizen ; " and thither he 
transferred his father's body, at the same time fulfilling a 
promise which Henry had made to the abbess of Fonte- 
vault by delivering his heart to her, to be enshrined in the 
Norman abbey where his mother Isabella, his uncle 
Richard I., his grandfather Henry H., and his grandmother 
Eleanor were buried. The effigy of the king, by the Eng- 
lish artist William Torely is of gilt brass. The king wears 
a coronet, and a long mantle reaching to his feet. 

Lying at her father-in-law's feet is " the queen of good 
memory," the beautiful Queen Eleanor (1290), wife of 
Edward I., and daughter of Ferdinand III. of Castile. 
Married in her tenth year to a husband of fifteen, she was 
separated from him till she was twenty, and then won his 
intense affection by a life of heroic devotion, especially 
during the perils of the Crusades, through which she insisted 
upon accompanying him, saying in answer to all remon- 
strances, " Nothing ought to part those whom God has 
joined, and the way to heaven is as near from Palestine as 
from England." She was the mother of four sons, of whom 
only one (Edward 11.) survived her, and of nine daughters, 
of whom only four married. *' To our nation," says Wal- 

• Keepe. 



294 WALKS IN LONDON. 

singham, ** she was a loving mother, the column and pillar 
of the whole realm. She was a godly, modest, and merciful 
princess. . . . The sorrow-stricken she consoled as became 
her dignity, and she made them friends that were at 
discord." She was taken ill at Hardeby, near Grantham, 
while Edward was absent on his Scottish wars, and died 
before he could reach her. His passionate grief ex- 
pended itself in the line of nine crosses, erected at the 
towns where her body rested on its progress to London. 
Every Abbot of Westminster, as he entered on his office, 
was bound by oath to see that a hundred wax lights were 
burning round her grave on St. Andrew's Eve, the anniver- 
sary of her death. Her heart was given to the convent of 
Blackfriars. 

The Queen's tomb, of Petworth marble, is by William 
Torel, an English artist, who built the furnace in which the 
statue was cast, in St. Margaret's Churchyard. The beautiful 
features of the dead queen are expressed in the most serene 
quietude : her long hair waves from beneath the circlet on 
her brow. One can see the character which was always 
able to curb the wild temper of her husband — the wife, as 
he wrote to the Abbot of Cluny, whom " living he loved, and 
dead he should never cease to love." 

Edward I. himself (1307) lies on the same side of the 
chapel, near the screen. He died at Burgh on Sol way 
Frith, after a reign of thirty-four years, was buried for a 
time at Waltham, and then removed hither to a site between 
his father's tomb and that of his brother Edmund. His 
body was embalmed Hke a mummy, bound in cere-cloth, 
and robed in cloth of gold, with a crown on his head, a 
sceptre in one hand, and the rod with the dove in the 



CHAPEL OF EDWARD THE CONFESSOR, 295 

Other. Thus he was seen when the tomb was opened in 
177 1. A wooden canopy once overshadowed the tomb, 
but this was broken down in a tumult at the funeral of 
Pulteney, Earl of Bath. Now the monument of the greatest 
of the Plantagenets is one of the plainest in the Abbey. 
Five slabs of grey marble compose it, and it bears the 
inscription, " Edvardus Primus Scotorum malleus hie est. 
1308. Pactum Serva." 

** Is the unfinished tomb a fulfilment of that famous * pact,* which 

the dying king required of his son, that his flesh should be boiled, his 
bones carried at the head of the English army till Scotland was sub- 
dued, and his heart sent to the Holy Land, which he had vainly tried 
in his youth to redeem from the Saracens ? It is true that with the 
death of the king all thought of the conquest of Scotland ceased. But 
it may possibly have been ' to keep the pact ' that the tomb was left 
in this rude state, which would enable his successors at any moment to 
take out the corpse and carry off the heart ; — and it may have been 
with a view to this that a singular provision was left and enforced. 
Once every two years the tomb was to be opened, and the wax of the 
king's cere-cloth renewed. The renewal constantly took place as long 
as his dynasty lasted, perhaps with a lingering hope that a time would 
come when a victorious English army would once more sweep through 
Scotland with the conqueror's skeleton, or another crusade embark for 
Palestine with that true English heart. The hour never came, and 
when the dynasty changed with the fall of Richard II., the renewal of 
the cerement ceased." — Dean Stanley, 

At Edward's death he left his second wife, Marguerite of 
France, a widow of twenty-six. She kept a chronicler, John 
o' London, to record the vaHant deeds of her husband, and 
when Edward died the people of England were edified by 
her breaking forth, through his pen, into a lamentation like 
that for Saul and Jonathan — "At the foot of Edward's 
monument with my little sons, I weep and call upon him. 
When Edward died all men died to me," &c.* 

• See Strickland's " Life of Marguerite of France.** 



296 WALKS IN LONDON. 

Neai the tomb of Edward was preserved in a gold cup 
the heart of Henry d'Almayne, nephew of Henry HI., 
murdered (1271) by Simon de Montfort in the cathedral of 
Viterbo. On the other side of the shrine lie some children 
of his cousin, Aylmer de Valence. 

The next tomb in point of date is that of Queen Philippa 
(1369), daughter of William, Earl of Hainault, and wife of 
Edward HI., by whom she was the mother of fourteen chil- 
dren. In this she only fulfilled expectations, for we learn 
from Hardyng that when the king was sending to choose 
one of the earl's daughters, an English bishop advised him 
to choose the lady of largest frame, as promising the most 
numerous progeny.* She was the foundress of Queen's 
College at Oxford. The figure which lies upon her tomb, 
executed by Hawkin Liege^ a Flemish artist, is remarkable 
for its cushioned headdress, and is the first attempt at a 
portrait. Around the tomb were placed the figures of thirty 
royal persons to whom she was related. " The open-work 
of the niches over the head of the effigy itself has been filled 
in with blue glass. The magnificence of the entire work 
may be imagined when it is known that it contained, when 
perfect, more than seventy statues and statuettes, besides 
several brass figures on the surrounding railing."! 

" When the good queen perceived her end approaching, she called 
to the king, and extending her right hand from under fhe bed-clothes, 
put it into the right hand of the king, who was very sorrowful at heart, 
and thus spoke : ' We have enjoyed our union in happiness, peace, and 
prosperity : I entreat, therefore, of you, that on our separation you will 
grant me three requests.' The king, with sighs and tears, replied, 
*Lady, ask : whatever you request shall be granted.' ' My Lord, I beg 
you will acquit me of whatever engagements I may have entered into for- 

• See Hardyng, cap. 178. 

+ Sir G. Scott's "Gleanings." 



CHAPEL OF EDWARD THE CONI'ESSOR, 297 

merly with merchants for their wares, as well on this as on the other side 
the sea. I beseech you to fulfil whatever gifts or legacies I may have 
made. Thirdly, I entreat that, when it shall please God to call you 
hence, you will not choose any other sepulchre than mine and that you 
will lie beside me in the cloister of Westminster.' The king, in tears, 
replied, ' Lady, I grant them.' Soon after, the good lady made the 
sign of the cross on her breast, and having recommended to God the 
king and her youngest son, Thomas, who was present, gave up her 
spirit, which, I firmly believe, was caught by the holy angels, and 
carried to the glory of Heaven : for she had never done anything, by 
thought or deed, that could endanger her losing it." — Froissart. 

Thomas of Woodstock, Duke of Gloucester, the son who was 
present at Philippa's death-bed, is the only one buried beside 
her. At five years old he had been left guardian of the 
kingdom while his parents were absent in French wars, and 
had represented his father by sitting on the throne before 
parliaments. He married a Bohun heiress, and was a great 
patron of literature, especially of Gower the poet. He was 
smothered at Calais in 1397, by order of his nephew, 
Richard H., and rests under a large stone which once bore 
a brass, in front of his mother's tomb. Gower in his " Vox 
Clamantis " has a Latin poem on the Duke of Gloucester, 
in which the following lines record his death — 

" Heu quam tortorum quidam de sorte malorum, 
Sic Ducis electi plumarum pondere lecti ; 
Corporis quassatum jugulantque necant jugulatum." 

In accordance with the promise made to the dying 

Philippa, the next tomb on the south is that of King 

Edward III., 1377 — 

" The honourable tomb 
That stands upon your royal grandsire's bones," 

mentioned in Shakspeare's Richard II. He died at 
Sheen, was carried, with face uncovered, through the streets 



298 JVALK'S IX LONDON. 

of London, followed by his many children, and w^as laid in 
Fhilij-ipa's grave. The features of the effigy which lies 
upon the tomb are believed to have been cast from the king's 
flice as he lay in death, and " the head is almost ideal in its 
beauty."* 

♦' Corpore fuit ele^^ns, statura quae v-ec justnm excederet nee nimis 
deprossioni succumberet, NTiltum habcns humana inortalitate magis 
venerabilem, similem angelo, in quo relucebat tarn mirifica gratia ut 
si quis ih ejus faciem palam respexisset vel nocte de illo somniasset eo 
proculdubio die sperabat sibi jocuuda solatia proventura." — Walsing- 
ham. 

In the words of his epitaph, he was "flos regum 
preteritorum, forma futurorum." All his children were 
represented around the tomb in brass : six only remain — 
Edward the Black Prince, Joan de la Tour, Lionel Duke 
of Clarence, Edward Duke of York, Henry of Brittany, and 
William of Hatfield. We have seen two other children in 
the Chapel of St. Edmund. + 

•• Mighty N-ictor ! mighty lord, 

Low on his funeral couch he lies ; 
No pitying heart, no eye. afford 

A tear to grace his obsequies. 
Is the sable warrior fled ? 
Thy son is gone : he rests among the dead I 
The swarm that in thy noontide beam were born 
Gone to salute the rising mora." — Gray. 

The Black Prince was buried at Canterbury, but Richard 
II. ^ his son by the Fair Maid of Kent, who succeeded his 
grandfather, Edward IIL, in his eleventh year, removed 

• Lord Lindsay, " Christian Art," iii. 

♦ Professor ^^'estmacott in his lecture on the " Sculpture of Westminster 
Abbey ' remarks on the shoes of this effigy being "left and right," erroneously 
supposed to be a modern fashion of shoejnaking. 



CHAPEL OF EDWARD THE CONFESSOR. 299 

the Bohun grandchildren of Edward I. that he might lie 
near him, and on the death of his beloved first wife, Queen 
Anne of Bohemia (1397), sister of the Emperor Wenceslaus 
(who first introduced the use of pins and side-saddles into 
England), in the twelfth year of her married life, he erected 
her tomb in its place. On it Nicholas Broker and Godfrey 
Brest, Citizens and Coppersmiths of London, were ordered to 
represent her t^gy with his own, their right hands tenderly 
clasped together, so that they might always bear witness to 
his devotion to the wife whom he lamented with such 
extravagant grief, that he caused the palace of Sheen to be 
razed to the ground, because it had been the scene of her 
death. The effigies are partly of brass and partly of 
copper. That of the king is attired like an ecclesiastic, his 
hair curls, and he has a pointed beard, but not much trace 
of the " surpassing beauty for which he was celebrated." 
The king's robe is decorated with the brooms-cods, of the 
Plantagenets, and " the sun rising through the dark clouds 
of Crecy." The arms of the loving couple have been stolen, 
with the pillows which supported the royal heads, the two 
lions which once lay at Richard's feet, and the eagle and 
leopard which supported those of the queen. The canopy 
is decorated within with half-obliterated paintings of the 
Almighty and of the Virgin with the Saviour, on a diapered, 
ground like that of the portrait of Richard II. Here also, 
when the feeble London light allows, may be seen the arms 
of Queen Anne — the two-headed eagle of the empire, and 
the lion rampant of Bohemia. After the death (probably 
the murder) oi King Richard 11, in Pomfret Castle in 1399, 
his body was brought to London, by order of Henry IV„ 
and exposed in St Paul's — '* his visage left opyn, that men 



300 WALKS IN LONDON. 

myght see and knowe his personne," and was then interred 
in the church of the Preaching Friars at Langley in Hert- 
fordshire. There it lay till the accession of Henry V., who, 
soon after his coronation (being then suitor for the hand of 
Katherine, sister of Richard's widow), exhumed it, seated 
it in a chair of state, and, with his whole court, followed in 
the strange procession which bore it to Westminster, and 
laid it in the grave of Queen Anne. The king's epitaph 
is very curious as bearing witness to the commencement of 
the struggle with the early Reformers — 

** Corpora procerus, animo prudens ut Homerus, 
Obruit hsereticos, et eorum stravit amicos." 

The epitaph begins on the north side : the first letter con- 
tains a feather with a scroll, the badge of Edward HI.* 

By especial desire of Richard II. his favourite John 
of Waltham (1395), Bishop of Salisbury, Keeper of the 
Privy Seal and Lord High Treasurer, was buried here 
amongst the kings, and lies under a large stone in front of 
the tomb of Edward I. 

We must now turn to the eastern end of the chape^^ 
where the grand tomb of Henry V. (1422), "Henry of 
Monmouth," the hero of Agincourt, the greatest king 
England had known till that time, rises on a site, for which 
even the sacred relics collected by the Confessor were 
removed and placed in a chest between the shrine and the 
tomb of Henry III. 

Henry V. died at Vincennes in his thirty-fourth year, and 
his funeral procession from thence to Calais, and from Dover 
to London, was the most magnificent ever known. Katherine 

• " Londiniana," voL i. 



CHAPEL OF EDWARD THE CONFESSOR. 301 

de Valois, his widow, followed the corpse, with James I. of 
Scotland, as chief mourner. On reaching London the 
funeral rites were celebrated first at St. Paul's and then at 
the Abbey. Here the king's three chargers were led up to 
the altar behind the waxen effigy of the king, which was 
first used in this instance. All England mourned. 

*• Hung be the heavens with black, yield day to night I 
King Henry the Fifth, too famous to live long ! 
England ne'er lost a king of so much worth." 

"The tomb of Henry towers above the Plantagenet graves be- 
neath, as his empire towered above their kingdom. As ruthlessly as 
any improvement of modem times, it devoured half the beautiful 
monuments of Eleanor and Philippa. Its structure is formed out of the 
first letter of his name — H. Its statues represent not only the glories 
of Westminster, in the persons of its two founders, but the glories of 
the two kingdoms which he had united— St. George, the patron of 
England ; St. Denys, the patron of France. The sculptures round the 
chapel break out in a vein altogether hew in the abbey. They de- 
scribe the personal peculiarities of the man and his history — the scenes 
of his coronation, with all the grandees of his court around him, and 
his battles in France. Amongst the heraldic emblems— the swans and 
antelopes derived from the Bohuns — is the flaming beacon or cresset light 
which he took for his badge, * showing thereby that, although his virtues 
and good parts had been formerly obscured, and lay as a dead coal 
seeldng light to kindle it, by reason of tender years and evil company, 
notwithstanding, he being now come to his perfecter years and ripei 
understanding, had shaken off his evil counsellors, and being now on 
his high imperial throne, that his virtues should now shine as the 
light of a cresset, which is no ordinary light.' Aloft were hung his 
large emblazoned shield, his saddle, and his helmet, after the example 
of the like personal accoutrements of the Black Prince at Canterbury, 
The shield has lost its splendour, but is still there. The saddle is that 
on which he 

« Vaulted with such ease into his seat, 
As if an angel dropp'd down from the clouds, 
To witch the world with noble horsemanship.* 

The helmet — which from its elevated position has almost become a 



302 WALKS IN LONDON. 

part of the architectural outline of the abbey, and on which many a 
Westminster boy has wonderingly gazed from his place in the choir — 
is in all probability * that very casque that did affright the air at Agin- 
court,' which twice saved his life on that eventful day— still showing 
in its dints the marks of the ponderous sword of the Duke of Alencon 
— 'the bruised helmet,' which he refused to have borne in state before 
him on his triumphal entry into London, * for that he would have the 
praise chiefly given to God ; ' 

* Being free from vainness and self-glorious pride, 
Giving full trophy, signal, and ostent, 
Quite from himself, to God.' 

Below is his tomb, which still bears some marks of the inscription 
which makes him the Hector of his age. Upon it lay his effigy 
stretched out, cut from the solid heart of an English oak, plated with 
silver-gilt, with a head of solid silver. It has suffered more than any 
other monument in the abbey. Two teeth of gold were plundered in 
Edward IV.'s reign. The whole of the silver was carried off" by some 
robbers who had * broken in the night-season into the Church of 
Westminster,' at the time of the Dissolution. But, even in its 
mutilated form, the tomb has always excited the keen interest of 
Englishmen. The robbery * of the image of King Henry of Mon- 
mouth ' was immediately investigated by the Privy Council. Sir 
Philip Sidney felt, that ' who goes but to Westminster, in the church 
may see Harry the Fifth ; ' and Sir Roger de Coverley's anger was roused 
at the sight of the lost head : * Some Whig, I'll warrant you. You 
ought to lock up your kings better, they'll carry off" the body too, if 
you don't take care.' " — Dean Stanley, Memorials of Westtni7tster. 



From the Chantry above the tomb (only shown by special 
order), where Henry ordained that masses were to be for 
ever offered up for his soul by " sad and solemn priests," 
one can look down into the shrine of the Confessor, and 
see the chest it contains. 

Queen Katherine de Valois, who married the Welsh 
squire Owen Tudor after her husband's death, was buried 
at first in the Lady Chapel (1437). When this was pulled 
down, to make room for the chapel of Henry VH., hei 



THE CORONATION CHAIR. 303 

coffin was placed by the side of her husband's tomb, where 
Pepys, writing Feb. 22, 1668-9, says — 

" Here we did see, by partictilar favour, the body of Queen Kathe- 
rine of Valois ; and I had the upper part of her body in my hands, and 
I did kiss her mouth, reflecting upon it that I did kiss a queene, and 
that this was my birthday, thirty-six years old, that I did kiss a 
qi^eene." — Diary. 

She now lies in the Chapel of St. Nicholas. Close to 
Edward III.'s monument is the little tomb of the infant 
Princess Margaret of York (1397), daughter of Edward 
IV. and Elizabeth Woodville ; and opposite it that of 
Princess Elizabeth Tudor ^ daughter of Henry VII., who died 
at Eltham, aged three. 

In front of the screen, facing the foot of St. Edward's 
shrine, stand the Coro7iation Chairs^ which, at coronations, 
are moved to the middle of the chancel. That on the left, 
scratched and battered by irreverent visitors, as full of 
varied colour as a mountain landscape, is the chair 
decorated by "William the Painter" for Edward I. In it 
was enclosed by Edward III. (1328) the famous Prophetic 
or Fatal Stone of Scone, on which the Scottish kings were 
crowned,* and with which the destinies of the Scottish rule 
were believed to be enwoven, according to the old metrical 
prophecy — 

" Ni fallit fatum, Scoti quocunque locatum 
Invenient lapidem, regnare tenentur ibidem." 

The legend of the stone relates that it was the pillow on 
which the Patriarch Jacob slept at Bethel when he saw the 

• The custom of inaugurating- a king upon a stone was of eastern origin and 
became general among Celtic and Scandinavian nations. Seven of the Anglo- 
Saxon kings were crowned on "the King's Stone" which still remains in the 
street of Kingston-on- Ihamcs. 



304 IVALKS IN LONDON. 

Vision of the Ladder reaching to heaven. From Bethel the 
sons of Jacob carried the Stone into Egypt. Thither came 
Gathelus the Greek, the son of Cecrops, the builder of 
Athens, who married Scota,* the daughter of Pharaon, but 
being alarmed at the judgments pronounced against Egypt 
by Moses, who had not then crossed the Red Sea, he fied 
to Spain, where he built the city of Brigantia. With him 
he took the Stone of Bethel, seated upon which " he gave 
lawes and administered justice unto his people, thereby to 
menteine them in wealth and quietnesse,"t In after days 
there was a king in Spain named Milo, of Scottish origin, 
and one of his younger sons, named Simon Brek, beloved 
by his father beyond all his brothers, was sent to conquer 
Ireland with an army, that he might reduce it to his 
dominion, which he did, and reigned there many years. 
His prosperity was due to a miracle, for when his ships first 
lay off the coast of Ireland, as he drew in his anchors, the 
famous Stone was hauled up with the anchors into the ship. 
Received as a precious boon from heaven, it was placed 
upon the sacred hill of Tarah, where it was called Lia-fail^ 
the " Fatal Stone," and gave the ancient name of Innis-fail^ 
or " the Island of Destiny," to the kingdom. :|: On the hill 
of Tarah, Irish antiquaries maintain that the real Stone still 
remains, but others assert that about 330 years before 
Christ, Fergus, the founder of the Scottish monarchy, bore 

• According to the Chronicle of Robert of Gloucester Scotland was named 
from Scota. 

" The Scottes yclupped were 
After a woman that ^^cote hyght, the dawter of Pharaon, 
Yat broghte into >cotlond a whyte marble ston, 
Yat was ordeyed for thare King, whan he coroned wer. 
And for a grete Jewyll long hit was yhold ther." 

t Holinshod. % Sir James Waxe. 



THE CORONATION CHAIR, 305 

the Stone across the sea to Dunstaffnage, where an ancient 
sculpture has been found of a king with a book of the laws 
in his hand, seated in the ancient chair '* whose bottom 
was the Fatal Stone." * But from Dunstaffnage the Stone 
was again removed and carried to lona by Fergus, who 

" Broucht pis stane wythin Scotland 

Fyrst qwhen he come and wane pat land, 
Ajid fyrst it set in Ikkolmkil."t 

It was Kenneth IT. who, in a.d. 840, brought the 
Stone to Scone, and there enclosed it in a chair of wood, 
" endeavouring to confirm his royal authority by mean and 
trivial things, almost bordering on superstition itself." { At 
Scone all the succeeding kings of Scotland were inaugurated 
till the time of John Baliol, who, according to Hardynge, 
was crowned 

<* In the Minster of Scone, within Scotlad grond, 
Sitty-ng vpon the regal stone full sound, 
As all the Kynges there vsed had afore, 
On Sainct Andrewes day, with al joye therefore.** 

After Edward I. had defeated Baliol near Dunbar in 1296, 
he is said, before he left the country, to have been himself 
crowned King of Scotland upon the sacred Stone at Scone. 
However this may be, on his return to England he carried 
off ai trophies of his conquest, not only the Scottish 
regalia, but the famous " Fatal Stone," '' to create in the 
Scots a belief that the time of the dissolution of their 
monarchy was come."§ Placing the Stone in the Abbey of 

• Pennant's " Tour to the Hebrides." ♦ Wintownis Chro.*ikil. 

X Buchanan's " History of Scotland." 

} See Kapin's " History of England," i. 375. 

VOL. II. X 



So6 



WALKS IN LONDON. 



Westminster, he ordered that it should be enclosed in a 
chair of wood, "for a masse priest to sit in.'* Various 
applications were afterwards made for the restoration of the 
Stone to the northern kingdom, and the immense importance 




The Coronation Chair. 



which the Scotch attached to it is shown by its having been 
the subject of a political conference between Edward III. 
an I David II. King of Scots. In 1328 Edward III. actually 
agreed to deliver it up:f the Scottish regalia was sent back, 
but when it came to giving up the Stone, " the people of 

* Hardyng's Chronicle. 
t Ayliffe's Calendars, p. 58. 



I 

I 



TIfE CORONATION CHA2R. 307 

London would by no means allow it to depart from them- 
selves." 

The Stone (which, geologically, is of such sandy sienite 
as may be found on the western coast of Scotland) is 
inserted beneath the seat of the chair, with an iron handle 
on either side so that it may be lifted up. The chair 
is of oak and has once been entirely covered with gilding 
and painting, now worn away with time and injured by the 
nails which have been driven in when it has been covered 
with cloth of gold at the coronations. At the back a strong 
lenc will still discover the figure of a king, seated on a 
cushion diapered with lozenges, his feet resting on a lion, 
and other ornaments.* 

In this chair all the kings of England since the time 
of Edward I. have been crowned; even Cromwell was 
installed in it as Lord Protector in Westminster Hall, on 
the one occasion on which it has been carried out of the 
church. 

When Shakspeare depicts Eleanor, Duchess of Gloster, 
imparting her aspirations to her husband Humphrey, she 
says — 

" Methinks I sate in seat of majesty 
In the Cathedral Church of Westminster, 
And in that Chair where kings and queens are crowned." 

2 Henry VI. Act 1. Sc, 2. 

The second chair was made for the coronation of Mary 
II. and has been used ever since for the queen's consort. 

Between the chairs, leaning against the screen, are pre- 
served the state SMWd a7id Sword of Edward III.^ which 

• Nearly all these and many other particulars concerning the Coronation Chair 
will be found in an article in Brayley*s " Londiniana," vol. 2. 



3o8 WALKS IN LONDON. 

were carried before him in France. This is " the monumental 
sword that conquer'd France," mentioned by Dryden : it is 
7 feet long and weighs i8 lbs. 

"Sir Roger de Coverley laid his hand upon Edward the Third's 
sword, and leaning upon the pommel of it, gave us the whole history 
of the Black Prince; concluding, that in Sir Richard Baker's opinion 
Edward the Third was one of the greatest princes that ever sat upon 
the EngUsh throne." — Spectator^ No. 329. 

Before leaving the chapel we must glance at its upper 
window, filled with figures of saints, executed in stained 
glass, of the kind called " Pot-metal " in the reign of 
Henry VI. 

"A feeling sad came o'er me as I trod the sacred ground 
Where Tudors and Plantagenets were lying all around ; 
I stepp'd with noiseless foot, as though the sound of mortal tread, 
Might burst the bands of the dreamless sleep that wraps the mighty 
dead." 

Ingoldshy Legends. 

Returning to the aisle, we may admire from beneath, 
where we see them at their full height, three beautiful 
tombs of the family of Henry HI. 

* Edmund Crouchback^ Earl of Lancaster (1296), second son of 
Henry III,, who fought in the Crusades. His name of Crouchback is 
believed to have had its origin in the cross or crouch which he wore 
embroidered on his habit after he had engaged to join in a crusade in 
1269. 

** Edward above his menne was largely seen, 
By his shoulders more hei and made full clene. 
Edmond next hym the comeliest Prince alive, 
Not croke-backed, ne in no wyse disfigured. 
As some menne wrote, the right lyne to deprive, 
Through great falsehed made it to be scriptured." — Hardynge, 

He received an imaginary grant of the kingdom of Sicily and 
Apulia from Pope Innocent IV. when he was only eight years old, 
which led to the extortions of Henry for the support of his claim. 



NORTH AISLE OF CHOIR. 



309 



On the death of Simon de Montfort, he was made Earl of Leicester 
and Seneschal of England by his father. At the base of the monu- 
ment are figures of the gallant party who went together to the Crusades 
— Edmund, his brother Edward I., his uncle William de Valence, three 
other earls, and four knights. The effigy of Edmund himself is exceed- 
ingly noble and dignified. Sculptured on his tomb are the roses of 
the House of Lancaster, a badge first introduced from the roses which 
he brought over from Provins ("Provence roses"), where they had 
been planted by Crusaders. The House of Lancaster claimed the 
throne by descent from this prince, and his second wife, Blanche, Queen 
of Navarre. 

* Aylmer de Valence, Earl of Pembroke (1323), third son of "WiUiara 
de Valence, and nephew of Henry III. He fought in the Scottish 
wars of Edward I. and Edward II. against the barons under Thomas, 
Earl of Lancaster, and connived at his sentence. This proved fatal 
to him. He went into France with Queen Isabel, and there died 
— " sodenly murdered by the vengeance of God, for he consented 
to the death of St. Thomas." * The sculpture of this tomb is 
decidedly French in character. Two angels, at the head of the effigy, 
support the soul of Aylmer, which is ascending to heaven. 

" The monuments of Aylmer de Valence and Edmund Crouchback 
are specimens of the magnificence of our sculpture in the reigns of the 
two first Edwards. The loftiness of the work, the number of arches 
and pinnacles, the lightness of the spires, the richness and profusion of 
foliage and crockets, the solemn repose of the principal statue, the 
delicacy of thought in the group of angels bearing the soul, and the 
tender sentiment of concern variously expressed in the relations ranged 
in order round the basement, forcibly arrest the attention, and carry 
the thoughts not only to other ages, but to other states of existence.'' 
— Flaxman. 

Aveline, Countess of Lancaster (1273). The tomb is concealed on 
this side by the ugly monument of 

Field Marshal Lord Ligonier (1770), celebrated as a military 
commander in all the wars of Anne, George L. and George IL, and 
who died at ninety-two in the middle of the reign of George III. The 
Muse of History is represented as holding a scroll, with the names of 
his battles. This was the witty Irishman who, when George II. reviewed 
his regiment and remarked — "Your men look like soldiers, but the 
hoTSes are poor," answered — " The men, Sire, are Irish, and gentlemen 
100 ; but the horses are English." The monument is by J. F. Moore. 

• Leland, fiom a Chronicle in Peter House Library. 



3IO WALKS IN LONDON. 

(Belo-w Ligonier) Sir John Harpendon (1457), a low altar tomb with 
a brass effigy, its head resting on a greyhound, its feet on a lion. Sir 
John was a knight of Henry V., and the fifth husband of the cele- 
brated Joan de la Pole, Lady Cobham, whose fourth husband was Sii 
John Oldcastle. 

(In the pavement) the gravestone, which once bore brasses, of Thomas 
Brown and Humphrey Roberts^ monks of Westminster, 1 508. 

Facing the tomb of Edmund Crouchback is the beautiful 
perpendicular Chapel of Abbot IsliJ>, 1532, who laid the 
foundation stone of the greater perpendicular chapel of 
Henry VII. His name appears — twice repeated — in the 
frieze, on which we may also see the rebus of the abbot — an 
eye, and a hand holding a slip or branch. The acts of Islip 
and his magnificent funeral obsequies are pictured in the 
exceedingly curious ** Islip Roll " in the Library of the 
Society of Antiquaries. In the centre of the chapel, rich 
in exquisitely finished perpendicular carving, he was buried, 
but his curious tomb, which bore his skeleton in alabaster, 
is destroyed, as well as a fresco of the Crucifixion with 
abbot's figure in prayer beneath, and the words — 

" En cruce qui pendes Islip miserere Johannis, 
Sanguine perfuso reparasti quem pretioso." 

In this chapel, without a monument, is buried Anne 
Mowbray, the heiress who was betrothed to Richard, Duke 
of York, the murdered son of Edward IV. On the eastern 
wall is the monument of Sir Christopher Hatton (16 19), 
great nephew of the famous Lord Chancellor. 

An especial order from the Dean is required- to gain 
admittance by a winding stair to the chamber above the 
Islip Chapel, which contains the few remains of the exceed- 
ingly curious waxwork effigies, which were carried at the 



THE WAX EFFIGIES. 311 

public funerals of great personages in the Abbey. The 
first sovereign who was thus represented was Henry V., 
who died in France and was brought home in his coffin ; 
previously the embalmed bodies of the kings and queens 
had been carried, with faces uncovered, at their funerals. 
Nevertheless, commemorative effigies of the Henrys and 
Edwards were made for the Abbey, but of these little remains 
beyond their wooden framework. When perfect they were 
exhibited in presses : thus Dryden saw them — 

" And now the presses open stand, 
And you may see them all a-row." 

Stow mentions the effigies of Edward III., Philippa, 
Henry V., Katherine de Valois, Henry VII., Elizabeth of 
York, Elizabeth, Henry Prince of Wales, James I., and 
Anne of Denmark. The exhibition of the waxwork figures 
was formerly found to produce a valuable addition for the 
small income of the minor canons, though it was much 
ridiculed as " The Ragged Regiment " and " The Play of 
DeadVolks."* After the show the "cap of General Monk" 
used to be sent round for contributions. 

**I thought on Naseby, Marston Moor, and Worcester's crowning 
fight, 
When on my ear a sound there fell, it filled me with affright ; 
As thus, in low unearthly tones, I heard a voice begin — 
This here's the cap of General Monk ! Sir, please put summut in." 

Ingoldshy Legends, 

The waxwork figures have not been publicly exhibited 
since 1839, though they are of the deepest interest, being 
effigies of the time of those whom they represent, robed by 
the hands of those who knew them and their characteristic 

• See Pope's " Life of Seth Ward." 



312 WALKS IN LONDON. 

habits of dress. The most interesting of the eleven existing 
figures is that of Elizabeth, a restoration by the chapter, in 
1760, of the original figure carried at her funeral, which had 
fallen to pieces a few years before. She looks half witch 
and half ghoul. Her weird old head is crowned by a 
diadem, and she wears the huge ruff laden with a century 
of dust, the long stomacher covered with jewels, the 
velvet robe embroidered with gold and supported on 
paniers, and the pointed high-heeled shoes with rosettes, 
familiar from her pictures. The effigy was carried from 
Whitehall at her funeral, April 28, 1603. 

**At which time, the whole city of "Westminster was surcharged 
with multitudes of all sorts of people, in the streets, houses, windows, 
leads, and gutters, who came to see the obsequy. And when they 
beheld her statue, or effigy, lying on the coffin, set forth in royal robes, 
having a crown upon the head thereof, and a ball and a sceptre in 
either hand, there was such a general sighing, groaning, and weeping, 
as the like hath not been seen or known in the memory of man ; 
neither doth any history mention any people, time, or state, to make 
like lamentation for the death of their sovereign." — Stow, 

Next in point of date of the royal effigies is that of 
Charles II., robed in red velvet, Ajrith lace collar and ruffles. It 
long stood over his grave in Henry VII.'s Chapel, and served 
as his monument. By his side once stood the now ruined 
effigy of General Monk, dressed in armour. Mary II. and 
William III. stand together in an oblong case, on either side 
of a pedestal. Mary, who died at thirty-two, is a large woman 
nearly six feet high. The effigy was cast from her dead 
face. She wears a purple velvet bodice, three brooches of 
diamonds decorate her breast, and she has pearl earrings 
and a pearl necklace d la Sevigne. The headdress is not 
well preserved, but it was recorded as curious that the 



THE WAX EFFIGIES, 313 

effigy of Mary was originally represented as wearing a 
fo?ita?tge, a streaming riband on the top of a high headdress 
(just introduced by the Duchesse de Fontange, the short- 
lived mistress of Louis XIV.), as it was an article of dress 
which the queen, who set up as a reformer of female attire, 
especially inveighed against. William III. is represented as 
much shorter than his wife, which was the case. Next comes 
the figure of Anne, fat, with hair flowing on her shoulders, 
wearing the crown and holding the orb and sceptre. This 
figure, which was carried on her coffin, is still the only 
sepulchral memorial to this great queen-regnant. There is 
no figure of her husband. 

" A cloud of remembrances come to mind as we gaze upon the kindly 
pale face and somewhat homely form, set out with its brocaded silk 
robes and pearl ornaments. We know that this is the figure that lay 
upon the funeral car of the royal lady, and that the dress is such as she 
was known to wear, and would be recognised as part of her present- 
ment by the silent crowds that gazed upon the solemn procession ; the 
same, too, that her numerous little children, all lying in a vault close 
by, would have recognised had they lived to grow to an age of recog- 
nition. . . . We think of the Augustan age over which she pre- 
sided, her friendships, her tenderness, her bounty, with peculiar interest, 
and turn from it with lingering regret." — The Builder, jfuly 7, 1877. 

The Duchess of Richmond (La Belle Stuart) is represented 
with her favourite parrot by her side, dressed in the robes 
which she wore at Queen Anne's coronation. Her effigy 
used to stand near her grave in Henry VI I. 's Chapel, and 
is one cf the most artistic of the figures, yet, as we look at 
it, we can scarcely realise that this was the lady who was 
persuaded to sit as " Britannia" for the effigy on our pence 
in the reign of Charles II. Catherme, Duchess of Bucking- 
/lamshire (1743), prepared for her own funeral in her life- 



314 WALKS IN LONDON, 

time, and her one anxiety on her death-bed was to see its 
pomps prepared before she passed away out of the world, 
her last request being that the canopy of her hearse might 
be sent home for her death-bed admiration. ** Let them 
send it, even though the tassels are not all finished." Her 
effigy, with that of her young son, long stood by her grave 
in Henry VII.'s Chapel. Near these reclines the sleeping 
effigy of her son, Edmund Sheffield^ Duke of Buckingham' 
shire, who died at Rome in 1735. This was the figure 
Duchess Catherine asked her friends to visit, saying that, if 
they had a mind to see it, she could " let them in con- 
veniently by a back door." * The figure of Lord Chatham 
is unimportant, having been only made in (1779) to increase 
the attraction of the waxworks ; but the figure of Nelson^ 
made as a counter-attraction to his tomb in the rival 
church of St. Paul's, is interesting, since, with the exception 
of the coat, the dress was actually his. 

A ghastly cupboard, which recalls the " El Pudridero " of 
the Escurial, between the figures of Anne and Lord Chat- 
ham, contains the remains of the earlier effigies, crowded 
together. In some of these the wooden framework is entire, 
with the features, from which the wax has peeled off, rudely 
blocked out. One of them, supposed to be Philippa, wears 
a crown. Of others merely the mutilated limbs remain. 

The Chest in which the remains of Major Andrd were 
brought from America to England in 182 1 is preserved in 
this chamber. 

As we descend the staircase, the ghoul-like face of 
Elizabeth in her corner stares at us over the intervening 
cases, and will probably leave a more distinct impression 

• Walpole's " Reminiscences," i. 234. 



NORTH AISLE OF CHOIR. 315 

• 
upon those who have looked upon her than anything else 

in the Abbey, especially when they consider it as represent- 
ing one who only a year before had allowed the Scottish 
ambassador (as if by accident) to see her "dancing high 
and containedly," that he might disappoint the hopes of his 
master by his report of her health and spirits. 
Opposite the Islip Chapel we find — 

The gravestone oi Brian Duppa (1662), the tutor to Charles 11. who 
visited him on his death-bed, and the friend of Charies I. who, when 
imprisoned in Carisbrooke, thought himself happy in the society of so 
good a man. He was in turn Bishop of Chichester, SaHsbury, and 
Winchester. 

Beyond the chapel is the monument of — 

• 

General Wolfe (1 759), who fell in the defeat of the French at 
Quebec, to which we owe the subjugation of Canada. 

" The fall of Wolfe was noble indeed. He received a wound in the 
head, but covered it from his soldiers with his handkerchief. A second 
ball struck him in the belly : but that too he dissembled. A third 
hitting him in the breast, he sank under the anguish, and was carried 
behind the ranks. Yet, fast as life ebbed out, his whole anxiety 
centred on the fortune of the day. He begged to be borne nearer to the 
action ; but his sight being dimmed by the approach of death, he 
entreated to be told what they who supported him saw : he was 
answered, that the enemy gave ground. He eagerly repeated the 
question, heard the enemy was totally routed, cried ' I am satisfied ' 
— and expired." — Walpole's Memoirs. 

Wolfe was buried at Greenwich, but so great was the enthusiasm for 
him, that Dean Zachary Pearce had actually consented to remove the 
glorious tomb of Aylmer de Valence to make room for his monument, 
and was only prevented by the remonstrances of Horace Walpole, 
sacrificing instead the screen of St. Michael's Chapel and most of the 
tomb of Abbot Esteuey. The monument is the first pubhc work of 
Joseph Wilton, and presents the ludicrous figure of a half-naked man 
(in shirt and stockings) in the arms of a full equipped Grenadier, 
receiving a wreath and palm-branch from Victory. On the basement 
is a bronze relief by Capizzoldi, representing the landing of the British 
troops and the ascent of the heights of Abraham. 



3i6 WALKS IN LONDON. 

% 
"It is full of truth, and gives a lively image of one of the most 
daring exploits that any warriors ever performed. Veterans, who had 
fought on that memorable day, have been observed lingering for hours, 
following with tlie end of their staff the march of their comrades up 
the shaggy precipice, and discussing the merits of the different 
leaders." — Allan Cu?iningham. 

(In front of Wolfe) the brass of Abbot Esteney (1498), moved from 
the tomb which formed part of the screen he erected for St. Michael's 
Chapel. He is represented in his abbatical vestments, under a three- 
fold canopy. His right hand is raised in benediction, his left holds a 
crozier, and proceeding from his mouth are the words " Exultabo in 
Deo Jhu' meo." The tomb was opened in 1706, and the abbot was 
found entire, in a crimson silk gown and white silk stockings, lying in a 
cofhn quilted with yellow satin. 

We now enter a chapel formed by the three Chapels of 
St. John, St. Mic^iael, and St. Andrew ^^^ once divided by 
screens, and entered from the north transept, but muti- 
lated and thrown together for the convenience of the 
monuments, many of which are most unworthy of their 
position. In examining the tombs we can only regard the 
chapels as a whole. Two great monuments break the lines 
of the centre. 

* Sir Francis Vere (1609), who commanded the troops in Holland 
in the wars of Elizabeth, and gained the Battle of Nieuport. This 
noble tomb was erected by his widow, and is supposed to be copied 
from that of Count Engelbrecht II. of Nassau at Breda. Sir Francis 
is represented in a loose gown, lying low upon a mat, while four 
knights bear as canopy a slab supporting his armour, in allusion to his 
having fallen a victim in sickness to the death he had vainly courted 
on the battle-field — 

"When Vere sought death arm'd with the sword and shield, 
Death was afraid to meet him in the field ; 
But when his weapons he had laid aside, 
Death like a coward struck him and he died."T 

• Relics of St. Andrew are said to have been given to the Abbey by King 
Athelstan, relics of St. John the Evangelist by " good Queen Maude," wife of 
Henry I. 

t Epitaph on Sir Francis Vere given in Lord Pettigrewr's collection. 



ST. JOHN, ST. MICHAEL, AND ST. ANDREW. 317 

The supporting knights are noble figures. One day Gayfere, the 
Abbey mason, found Roubiliac, who was superintending the erection of 
the Nightingale monument, standing with folded arms, and eyes fixed 
upon one of them, unconscious of all around. " Hush, he vill speak 
presently," said the sculptor, deprecating the interruption. This 
tomb "is one of the last works executed in the spirit of oiu- Gothic 
monuments, and the best."* 

Henry, Lord Norris (1601), and his wife Margaret, the heiress of 
Rycote in Oxfordshire. He was the son of Sir Henry Norris, the 
gallant friend of Anne Boleyn, who maintained her innocence to the 
scaffold. Hence Elizabeth, daughter of the murdered queen, regarded 
him with peculiar favour, and, in her eighth year, knighted him in his 
own house at Rycote, where she was placed under his guardianship. 
She nicknamed Lady Norris " my own crow " from her swarthy com- 
plexion, and wrote to condole with her on the death of one of her sons 
by this designation. The tomb is Corinthian, with eight columns 
supporting a canopy, beneath which lie the figures of Lord Norris 
(created a baron for his services as ambassador in France) and his wife. 
Around the base kneel their eight sons, " a brood of martial-spirited 
men, as the Netherlands, Portugal, Little Bretagne, and Ireland can 
testify."t William, the eldest, was Marshal of Berwick. Sir John had 
three horses shot under him while fighting against the Spaniards in the 
Netherlands. Sir Thomas, Lord Justice of Ireland, died of a shght 
wound "not weU looked after." Sir Henry died of a wound about 
the same time. Maximilian was killed in the wars in Brittany, and 
Edward, Governor of Ostend, was the only survivor of his parents.! 
Thus, while the others are represented as engaged in prayer, he is 
cheerfully looking upwards. All the brothers are in plate-armour, but 
unhelmeted, and Math trunk breeches. " They were men of a haughty 
courage, and of great experience in the conduct of military affairs ; 
and, to speak in the character of their merit, they were persons of 
such renown and worth, as future times must, out of duty, owe them 
the debt of honourable memory." 

" The Norrises were all jnartis ^ulli, men of the sword, and never out 
of military employment. Queen Elizabeth loved the Norrises for 
themselves and herself, being sensible that she needed such martial 
men for her service." — Fuller's Worthies. 

Making the round of the walls from the right, we see the 
monuments of — 

• Allan Cunningbam's " Life of Roubiliac.*' 

t Camden's " Brittania." % -«e Fuller's " Woithies." 



3i8 



WALKS IN LONDON. 



Captain Edward Cooke, 1790, who captured the French frigate 
La Forte in the bay of Bengal, and died of his wounds, — with a relief 
by Bacon. 

General Sir Geor^^e Holies (1626), a figure in Roman armour, 
executed for ;^ioo by Nicholas Stone, for the general's brother, John, 
Earl of Clare. On the base is represented in relief the Battle of 
Nieuport, in which Sir George was distinguished. The advent of 
classical art may be recognised in this statue, as the tomb of Sir F. 
Vere was the expiring effort of gothic. 

Sir George Pocock (1792), the hero of Chandemagore. The tomb, 
by John Bacon, supports an awkward figure of Britannia defiant. 

* Lady Elizabeth Nightingale (1734), daughter of Earl Ferrers; 
sister of Selina, the famous Countess of Huntingdon; and wife of 
Joseph Gascoigne Nightingale of Mamhead in Devonshire. This 
tomb, " more theatrical than sepulchral,"* is the last and greatest work 
of Roubiliac. The skeleton figure of Death has burst open the iron 
doors of the grave and is aiming his dart at the lady, who shrinks back 
into the arms of her horror-stricken husband, who is eagerly but vainly 
trying to defend her. In his fury, Death has grasped the dart at the 
end by the feathers. 

" The dying woman would do honour to any artist. Her right arm 
and hand are considered by sculptors as the perfection of fine workman- 
ship. Life seems slowly receding from her tapering fingers and her 
quivering wrist. Even Death himself— dry and sapless though he be — 
the very fleshless cheeks and eyeless sockets seem flashing with malig- 
nant joy." — Allan Cunningham. 

" It was whilst engaged on the figure of Death, that Roubiliac one 
day, at dinner, suddenly dropped his knife and fork on his plate, fell 
back in his chair, and then darted forwards, and threw his features into 
the strongest possible expression of fear— fixing his eye so expressively 
on the country lad wlio waited, as to fill him with astonishment. A 
tradition of the abbey records that a robber, coming into the abbey by 
moonlight, was so startled by the same figure as to have fled in dismay, 
and left his crowbar on the pavement." — Dean Stanley. 

Sarah, Duchess of Somerset (1692), daughter of Sir Edward Alston, 
afterwards married to Henry Hare, second Lord Coleraine. Her figure 
half reclines upon a sarcophagus. The two weeping charity boys at the 
sides typify her beneficence in founding the Froxfield alms-houses in 
Wiltshire. Behind this tomb are the remains of three out of the seven 

* Walpole, " Anecdotes of Painting.'* 



ST. JOHN, ST. MICHAEL, AND ST. ANDREW. 319 

arches which formed the ancient reredos of St. Michael's altar. The 
ancient altar stone has also been discovered. At the entrance of St. 
Andrew's Chapel, one of the pillars (left) retains the original polish of 
the thirteenth centurj- (ha\ing been long enclosed in a screen), and 
may be taken as an examj)le of what all the Purbeck marble pillars 
were originally. 

Theodore Phaliologus (1644), descended from the last Christian 
emperors of Greece, whose name was Palaeologus. 

John Philip Kemhle (1823), represented as "Cato" in a statue by 

Flaxvtan. 

Dr. Thomas Young (1829), learned in Egyptian hieroglyphics — a 
tablet by Chantrey. 

Sarah Siddons (1831), the great tragedian — a poor statue by 
Thomas Campbell, which rises like a white discordant ghost behind the 
Norris tomb. 

Sir Humphry Davy (1829), celebrated for his discoveries in physical 
science. Buried at Geneva. A tablet. 

Matthew Baillie, the anatomist (1823) — a bust by Chantrey, 

Thomas Telford {1834), who, the son of a shepherd, rose to eminence 
as an engineer, and constructed the Menai Bridge and the Bridgwater 
Canal, but is scarcely entitled to the space so vmsuitably occupied by 
his huge ugly monument by Baity. 

Rear Admiral Thomas Totty (1702) — a monument by the younger 
Bacon. 

Anastasia, Countess of Kerry (1799). The monument bears an 
affecting inscription by her husband, " whom she rendered during 
thirty-one years the happiest of mankind." He was laid by her side in 
1818. By Buckham. 

Abbot Kyrton (1466), a slab in the pavement, which once bore a 
brass from his tomb, destroyed under Anne. Kyrton erected the 
screen of St. Andrew's Chapel. 

Admiral Richard Kempenfelt (1782), who perished in the sinking of 
the Royal George at Spithead — 

" When Kempenfelt went down 
With twice four hundred men.*' 



320 WALKS IN LONDON. 

His body was washed ashore and buried at Alverstoke, near Gospoit. 
The sinking ship and the apotheosis of its admiral are represented 
on a column, by the younger Bacon. 

Algernon, Earl of Mountrath, and his Countess, Diana. The monu- 
ment is by Joseph Wilton, the sculptor of Wolfe's memorial ; but few 
will understand now the tumult of applause with which it was received 
— " the grandeur and originality of the design " being equally praised 
by contemporary critics, with the feathering of the angels' wines 
" which has a lightness nature only can surpass." 

Sir John Franklin (1847), the Arctic explorer. A bust. 



CHAPTER VIL 

"VTESTMINSTER ABBEY.—n 

We now enter the North Transept of the Abbey, of which 
the great feature is the beautiful rose-window (restored 1722), 
thirty-two feet in diameter. This transept was utterly unin- 
vaded by monuments till the Duke of Newcastle was buried 
here two hundred years ago. Since then it has become the 
favourite burial-place of admirals, and since Pitt, Earl of 
Chatham, was laid here in 1778, the central aisle has been 
** appropriated to statesmen, as the other transept by poets." 
The whole character of the monuments is now changed ; 
while the earlier tombs are intended to recall Death to 
the mind, the memorials of the last two centuries are 
entirely devoted to the exaltation of the Life of the person 
commemorated. In this transept, especially, the entire 
space between the grey arches is filled by huge monuments 
groaning under pagan sculpture of oflensive enormity, emu- 
lating the tombs of the Popes in St. Peter's in their size, 
and curious as proving how taste is changed by showing 
the popularity which such sculptors as Nollekens, Schee- 
makers, and Bacon long enjoyed in England. Through the 
remainder of the Abbey the monuments, often interesting 
from their associations, are in themselves chiefly remarkable 

VOL. II. 



322 WALKS IN LONDON. 

for their utter want of originality and variety. Justice and 
Temperance, Prudence and Mercy, are for ever busy 
propping up the tremendous masses of masonry upon 
which Britannia, Fame, and Victory are perpetually seen 
crowning a bust, an urn, or a rostral column with their 
wreaths ; while beneath these piles sit figures indicative of 
the military or naval professions of the deceased, plunged 
in idiotic despair. As we continue our walk through the 
church we descend gradually but surely, after we leave the 
fine conceptions and graphic portraiture of Roubiliac and 
Rysbrack. Even Bacon and Flaxman are weighed down 
by the pagan mania for Neptunes, Britannias, and Victorys, 
and only rise to anything like nobility in the single figures 
of Chatham and Mansfield. The abundant works of 
Chantrey and Westmacott in the Abbey are, with one or 
two exceptions, monotonous and commonplace. But it is 
only when utterly wearied by the platitudes of Nollekens or 
Cheere,* that we appreciate what lower depths of degrada- 
tion sculpture has reached in the once admired works of 
Taylor and Nathaniel Read and in most of the works of Bird. 

When he came back from Rome and saw his works in 
Westminster Abbey, Roubiliac exclaimed, " By God ! my 
own work looks to me as meagre and starved, as if made 
of nothing but tobacco-pipes." 

We may notice among the monuments — 

Sir Robert Peel (1850), represented as an orator, in a Roman toga, 

by Gibson. 

Vice-Admiral Sir Peter Warren (1752). The monument by 
Roubiliac is especially ridiculed in Churchill's "Foundling Hospital 
for Wit." It pourtrays a figure of Hercules placing the bust of the 

* It would scarcely be believed from his works that Cheere was the master of 
Roubiliac. 



THE NORTH TRANSEPT, 323 

deceased upon a pedestal. Navigation sits by disconsolate, with a 
withered olive-branch. Behind the tomb is seen the beautiful screen 
of Abbot Kyrton. 

Against the adjoining pillar is the monument of Grace Scot (1645), 
wife of the regicide Colonel cruelly executed at the Restoration. It 
bears the lines — 

" He that wUl give my Grace but what is hers, 
Must say her death has not 
Made only her dear Scot 
But Virtue, Worth, and Sweetness, widowers." 

Sir John Malcolm (1833). Statue by Chantrey. "He who was 
always so kind, always so generous, always so indulgent to the weak- 
nesses of others, while he was always endeavouring to make them 
better than they were, — he who was unwearied in acts of benevolence, 
ever aiming at the greatest, but never thinking the least beneath his 
notice, — who could descend, without feeling that he sank, from the 
command of armies and the government of an empire, to become a 
peacemaker in village quarrels, — he in whom dignity was so gentle, and 
wisdom so playful, and whose laurelled head was girt with a chaplet of 
all the domestic affections, — the soldier, statesman, patriot, Sir John 
Malcohn."— 7. C. Hare. 

William Cavendish, the ^^ Loyall Duke of Newcastle^'''' who lost 
^941,308 by his devotion to the cause of Charles I., and his Duchess y 
Margaret Lucas, who, as her epitaph tells, came of " a noble family, 
for all the brothers were valiant, and aU the sisters virtuous." This 
Duchess, commemorated in " Peveril of the Peak," was a most 
voluminous writer, calling up her attendants at all hours of the night, 
** to take down her Grace's conceptions,* much to the disgust of her 
husband, who, when complimented on her learning, said, ' Sir, a very 
wise woman is a very foolish thing.' " Walpole calls her " a fertile 
pedant, with an unbounded passion for scribbling." She is, however, 
commemorated here as " a very wise, wittie, and learned lady, which her 
many bookes do well testifie. She was a most virtuous, and loveing, 
and carefull wmfe, and was with her lord all the time of his banishment 
and miseries, and when he came home never parted from him in his 
solitary retirement." "The whole story of this lady," wrote Pepys, 
"is a romance, and all she does is romantic." Conceit about her own 
works was certainly not her fault, for she said, in writing to a friend — 
" You will find my works like infinite nature, that hath neither beginning 
nor end ; and as confused as the chaos, wherein is neither method noi 

• See Newcastle House, Clerkenwell. 



3^4 WALKS IN LONDON, 

order, but all mixed together, without separation, like light and 

darkness." 

The Duke was also an author, and wrote several volumes on horse- 
manship. He is extolled by Shadwell as the " greatest master of wit, 
the most exact observer of mankind, and the most accurate judge of 
humour " he ever knew. Gibber speaks of him as " one of the most 
finished gentlemen, as well as the most distinguished patriot, general, 
and statesman of his age." His liberality to Uterary men caused 
him to be regarded as "the English Maecenas."* "Nothing," 
says Clarendon, " could have tempted him out of those paths of 
pleasure which he enjoyed in a full and ample fortune (which he 
sacrificed by his loyalty, and lived for a time in extreme poverty), 
but honour and ambition to serve the king when he saw him in distress, 
and abandoned by most of those who were in the highest degree 
obhged to him." 

The Duke is represented in a coroneted periwig. The dress of the 
Duchess recalls the description of Pepys, who met her (April 26th, 
1667) " with her black cap, her hair about her ears, many black 
patches, because of pimples about her mouth, naked necked, without 
anything about it, and a hX^Lck just au corps.'''' Her open book and the 
pen-case and ink-horn in her hand recall her passion for authorship. 

Charles, Earl Canning, Viceroy of India (i860) — a statue by Foley. 

George Canning, the Prime Minister (1827) — a fine statue by 
Chantrey. 

John Holies, Earl of Clare and Duke of Newcastle (1711). He 
filled many public offices during the reign of Queen Anne, and was 
created Duke upon his marriage with Margaret, daughter of the Duke 
William Cavendish, who lies beside him. His enormous wealth caused 
him to be regarded as the " richest subject that had been in the kingdom 
for some ages," and his only daughter and heiress, Henrietta Cavendish 
Holies Harley, bore witness to it with filial devotion in this immense 
monument. The admirable architecture is by Gibbs, but the ludicrous 
figure of the Duke is by Bird. The statues of Prudence and Sincerity 
are said to have "set the example of the allegorical figures" in the 
abbey.t 

(Right of north entrance) Edward Vernon, Admiral of the White 
(1757), stigmatized by Byron as " the Butcher" in the opening canto 
of" Don Juan." After his capture of Porto Belloin November, 1739, by 
which he was considered in the words of his epitaph to have " con- 
quered as far as naval force could carry victory," he became the populai 

" Longbaina's " Dramatick Poets.'* t Dean Stanley. 



THE NORTH TRANSEPT. 325 

hero of the day, and his birthday was kept -with a public illumination 
and bonfires all over London ; yet, only six years afterwards, he was 
dismissed the service for exposing the abuses of the Navy in Parliament. 
The monument, by Rysbrack, represents Fame crowning the bust of 
the admiral : it was erected by his nephew Lord OrweU in 1763. 

(Left of north entrance) Sir Charles Wager, Admiral of the 
White (1743). A feeble monument hy Sc he emakers, representing Fame 
lamenting over a medaUion supported by an infant Hercules. The 
description of the admiral given in the epitaph is borne out by Walpole 
(i. 248), who says, " Old Sir Charles Wager is dead at last, and has 
left the fairest character." 

William Pitt, Earl of Chatham (1778). The great statesman, who 
was seized by his last illness in the House of Lords, was first buried at 
Hayes, but in a few weeks was disinterred and brought to "Westminster. 
" Though men of all parties," says Macaulay,* " had concurred in 
decreeing posthumous honours to Chatham, his corpse was attended to 
the grave almost exclusively by opponents of the government. The 
banner of the lordship of Chatham was borne by Colonel Barre, attended 
by the Duke of Richmond and Lord Rockingham. Burke, Savile, and 
Dunning upheld the paU. Lord Camden was conspicuous in the pro- 
cession. The chief mourner was young William Pitt." 

The colossal monument (thirty-three feet in height), by Bacon, was 
erected for the king and parliament at a cost of ^^Gooo. Britannia 
triumphant is seated upon a rock, with Earth and Ocean recumbent 
below. Above, on a sarcophagus, are statues of Prudence and 
Fortitude ; lastly the figure of Lord Chatham, in his parliamentary 
robes, starts from a niche in an attitude of declamation. It was of 
this tomb that Cooper wrote — 

" Bacon there 
Gives more than female beauty to a stone, 
And Chatham's eloquence to marble lips." 

The inscription, which is also by Bacon, drew forth the injunction of 
George HI., who, while approving it, said, " Now, Bacon, mind you 
do not turn author, stick to your chisel." When Bacon was retouching 
the statue of Chatham, a divine, and a stranger, tapped him on the 
shoulder, and said, in allusion to the story of Zeuxis, " Take care what 
you are doing, you work for eternity." This reverend person then 
stept into the pulpit and began to preach. When the sermon was over, 
Bacon touched his arm and said, " Take care what you lo, you work 
for eternity." — Allan Cunningham. 

* Essays, vi. 229. 



326 WALKS IN LONDON, 

Henry Grattan (1820), the eloquent advocate of the rights of 
Ireland, lies buried in front of Chatham's monument, near the graves 
of Pitt, Fox, Castlereagh, Wilberforce, the two Cannings, and 
Palmerston. Pitt and Fox died in the same year, and are biiried close 
together. 

Here — " taming thought to human pride — 

The mighty chiefs sleep side by side. 

Drop upon Fox's grave the tear, 

'Twill trickle to his rival's bier. 

O'er Pitt's the mournful requiem sound, 

And Fox's shall the notes rebound. 

The solemn echo seems to cry — 

Here let their discord with them die ; 

Speak not for those a separate doom 

"Whom Fate made brothers in the tomb." 

Scotfs Marmioriy Jntr. to Canto i. 

Henry John Temple, Viscount Palmerston (1865). A statue by 
Jackson, erected by Parliament. 

" The Three Captains^'' — William Bayne, William, Blair, and Lord 
Robert Manners, who fell in 1782 mortally wounded in naval engage- 
ments in the West Indies, under Admiral Rodney. In the colossal 
tomb by Nollekens (next to that of "Watt, the most offensive in the 
abbey), Neptune, reclining on the back of a sea-horse, directs the 
attention of Britannia to the medallions of the dead, which hang from 
a rostral column surmounted by a figure of "Victory. 

Robert, Viscount Castlereagh, second Marquis of Londonderry 
(1822). A statue by Owen Thomas, erected by his successor to " the 
best of brothers and friends." 

William Murray, Earl of Mansfield ( 1 793), who " from the love which 
he bore to the place of his early education desired to be buried in this 
cathedral (privately)." This huge monument was erected by funds left 
for the purpose by A. Bailey of Lyons Inn. The noble statue, by 
Flaxman, is taken from a picture by Sir J. Reynolds. It is supported 
by the usual allegorical figures. Behind, at the foot of the pedestal, is 
the figure of a condemned criminal. 

" The statue of Mansfield is calm, simple, severe, and soHtary — he sits 
alone, * above all pomp, all passion, and all pride ; ' and there is that 
in his look which would embolden the innocent and strike terror to the 
guilty. The figure of the condemned youth is certainly a fine conception 
— hope has forsaken him, and aheady in his ears is the thickening hum 
of the multitude, eager to see him make his final account with time. 



THE NORTH TRANSEPT. 337 

This work raised high expectations — Banlcs said when he sa\» It, 
* This little man cuts us all out.' "—Allan Cunningham, 

" Here Murray long enough his country's pride, 
Shall be no more than Tully or than Hyde."— /\?/tf. 

"Lord Mansfield's is a character above all praise, — the oracle of law, 
the standard of eloquence, and the pattern of all virtue, both in public 
and private life." — Bishop Newton. 

" His parliamentary eloquence never blazed into sudden flashes ot 
dazzling brilUancy, but its clear, placid, and mellow splendour was 
never for an instant overclouded. ... In the House of Peers, Chat- 
ham's utmost vehemence and pathos produced less effect than the 
moderation, the reasonableness, the luminous order, and the serene 
dignity which characterised the speeches of Lord Mansfield." — 
Macaulay^s Essays, ii. 27, iii. 536. 

(Turning round the screen of monuments) Sir William Webb FoUett 
(1845), Attorney-General — a statue by Behnes. 

George Gordon^ Fourth Earl of Aberdeen (i860), Prime Minister — a 
bust by Noble. 

* Mrs. Elizabeth Warren, wife of the Bishop of Bangor (18 16). Her 
charities are typified by the lovely figure of a beggar girl holding a 
baby, by Westmacott. 

Sir George Comewall Lewis (1863), Chancellor of the Exchequer and 
Secretary of State — a bust by Weekes. 

General Sir Eyre Coote (1783), who expelled the French from the 
coasts of Coromandel, and defeated the forces of Hyder Ally. In the 
huge and hideous monument by Thomas Banks Victory is represented 
as hanging the medallion of the hero upon a trophy : the mourning 
Mahratta captive and the little elephant in front recall the scene of his 
actions. " The Mahratta captive is praised by artists for its fine ana- 
tomy, and by artists for its finer expression." * 

Charles Buller (1848), who "united the deepest human sympathies 
with wide and philosophic views of government and mankind, and pur- 
sued the noblest poUtical and social objects, above party spuit and 
without an enemy." A bust. 

Brigadier-General Hope^ Lieutenant-Governor of Quebec (1789). 
Monument by Bacon. 

Warren Hastings (1818), Governor of Bengal. He was buried at his 
home of Daylesford, though — " with all his faults, and they were 

* Allan Cunningham. 



328 WALKS IN LONDON, 

neither few nor small, only one cemetery was worthy to contain his 
remains. In that Temple of silence and reconciliation where the 
enmities of twenty generations lie buried, in the Great Abbey which 
has during many ages afforded a quiet resting-place to those whose 
minds and bodies have been shattered by the contentions of the great 
Hall, the dust of the illustrious accused shoiild have mingled with the 
dust of the illustrious accusers." * 

Jonas Hanway (1786), "the friend and father of the poor," chiefly 
known as the first person in England who carried an umbrella. He 
wrote some interesting accounts of his foreign travels, and then pub- 
lished a dull journal of an English tour. "Jonas," says Dr. Johnson, 
" acquired some reputation by travelhng abroad, but lost it all by tra- 
velling at home." The monument has a medallion by Moore. 

Sir Herbert Edwardes (1868), the hero of the Punjab. A bust. 

Richard Cobden (1865), distinguished by his efforts for the repeal of 
the Cora-Laws. A bust by Woolner, 

George Montagu Dunk, Earl of Halifax {1771), Secretary of State, 
who "contributed so largely to the commerce and splendour of 
America as to be styled the Father of the Colonies." The capital of 
Nova Scotia takes its name from him. A monument by John Bacon. 

Vice- Admiral Charles Watson (1757), who delivered the prisoners 
in the black hole of Calcutta. A frightful monument by Scheemakersy 
erected by the East India Company. 

Sir William Sanderson {1676), the adulatory historian of Mary 
Stuart, James I., and Charles I. ; and his wife Dame Bridget — " Mother 
of the Maids of Honour to the Queen-Mother, and to her Majesty that 
now is." The monument is supported by figures of Wisdom and 
Justice. 

(West Wall) General Joshua Guest, "who closed a service of sixty 
years by faithfully defending Edinburgh Castle against the rebels in 
1745." A monument and bust. 

Sir John Balchen (1744), Admiral of the White, Commander-in- 
Chief, lost on board the Victory in a violent storm in the channel, 
"from which sad circumstance," says the epitaph, "we may learn 
that neither the greatest skill, judgment, or experience, joined to the 
most pious, unshaken resolution, can resist the fury of the winds and 
waves." The monument by Scheemakers, bears a relief representing 
the shipwreck. 

«» Macaulay*s " Essayt." 



THE MUSICIANS' AISLE. 329 

John Warren, Bishop of Bangor (1800). A monument by R. 

Westmacott. 

Lord Aubrey Beauclerk (1740), killed in a naval engagement under 
Admiral Vernon off the Spanish coast. A monument by Schee- 
makers, 

" Sweet were his manners, as his soul was great, 
And ripe his worth, though immature his fate. 
Each tender grace that joy and love inspires 
Living, he mingled with his martial fires ; 
Dying, he bid Britannia's thunder roar, 
And Spain still felt him when he breath'd no more." 

(The window above this tomb commemorates the loss of H.M.S. 
Captain, Sept. 7, 1870.) 

General Hon. Percy Kirk (1741), and his wife Diana Dormer of 
Rousham. A monument by Scheemakers. 

Richard Kane (1736), distinguished in the wars of William III. and 
Anne, and for his defence of Gibraltar for George I. He was rewarded 
by George II. with the governorship of Minorca, where he is buried. 
A monument by Ryshrack, with a fine bust. 

Satnuel Bradford, Bishop of Rochester (1731), "prsesul humillimus, 
humanissimus, et vere evangelicus." A monument by Cheere. 

Hugh Boulter, Bishop of Bristol, who " was translated to the Arch- 
bishopric of Armagh (1733), and from thence to heaven" (1742). 
Monument by Cheere. 

Entering the north aisle of the Choir, the " Aisle of the 
Musicians," we find — 

(Left Wall) Sir Thomas Powell Puxton, the philanthropist, chiefly 
known from his exertions in the cause of Prison Discipline and for the 
suppression of Suttees in India. A statue by Thrupp. 

Sir Thotnas Hesketh (1605), an eminent lawyer of the time of Eliza- 
beth. A handsome monument of the period, with a reclining figure. 

Hugh Chamberlen (1728), an eminent physician and benefactor to 
the science of midwifery, on which he pubhshed many works. His 
monument, by Scheemakers and Delvaux, was erected for Edward, 
Duke of Buckinghamshire, and his elaborate epitaph is by Atterbury, 
whom he visited in the Tower. In the time of its erection this was 
considered " one of the best pieces in the Abbey ! " * 
• Strype. 



330 WALKS IN LONDON. 

(In front ot Chamberlen's tomb is the fine brass of Dr. y, H, Monk, 
Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol, sometime Canon of this church, 1859.) 

Samuel Arnold (1802), the composer and organist of the Abbey — a 
tablet. 

Henry Purcell (1695), composer and organist — a tablet. The epitaph, 
by Lady Elizabeth Howard, the wife of Dryden, tells how he is " gone 
to that blessed place where only his harmony can be exceeded." The 
air, " Britons, strike home," is one of the best known of PurceU's pro- 
ductions. 

Sir Stamford Rajles {1S26), Governor of Java and First President 
of the Zoological Society of London. A statue by Chantrey. 

Almeric de Courcy, Baron of Kinsale (1719), who commanded a 
troop of horse under James II. His epitaph tells how he was "de- 
scended from the famous John de Courcy, Earl of Ulster, who, in the 
reign of King John, in consideration of his great valour, obtained that 
extraordinary privilege to him and his heirs of being covered before the 
king." 

* William Wilherforce (1833), "whose name will ever be specially 
identified with those exertions wliich, by the blessing of God. removed 
from England the guilt of the African Slave traxie. The peers and 
commons of England, with the Lord Chancellor and the Speaker at 
their head, carried him to his fitting place among the mighty dead 
around." A statue by Joseph, perhaps the most characteristic modem 
statue in the Abbey. 

Sir Thomas Duppa (1694), who waited upon Charles II. when 
Prince of Wales, and after the Restoration was made Usher of the 
Black Rod. 

Dame Elizabeth Carteret (17 17). Above are inscriptions to the 
different members of the Greville family buried in the tomb of their 
relative. Monk, Duke of Albemarle. 

Turning to the Right Wall we find — 

Dr. John Blo7v (1708), organist and composer, the master of Purcell. 
A canon in four parts with the music is seen beneath the tablet. 

" Challenged by James II. to make an anthem as good as that of 
one of the King's Italian composers. Blow by the next Sunday pro- 
duced, ' I beheld, and lo a great multitude ! ! ' The King sent the 
Jesuit, Father Peter, to acquaint him that he was well pleased with it, 
'but.' added Peter, *I myself think it too long.' 'That,' replied 



THE NAVE, 331 

Blow, 'is the opinion of but one fool, and I heed it not.' This quarrel 
was, happily, cut short by the Revolution of 1688." — Dean Stanley. 

Charles Burney (1814), author of the "History of Music," the 
friend of Dr. Johnson, and father of Madanae d'Arblay. A tablet. 
" Dr. Burney gave dignity to the character of the modern musician, 
by joining to it that of the scholar and philosopher." — Sir W. Jones. 

William Croft (1727), composer and organist. He died of his 
exertions at the coronation of George H. " Ad coelitum demigravit 
chorum, praesentior angelorum concentibus suum additurus Hallelu- 
jah." A tablet and bust. 

Temple West, Admiral of the White (1757), the son-in-law of Bal- 
chen, celebrated for his victories over the French. A bust. 

Richard Le Neve, who was killed while commanding the Edgar in 
the Dutch wars, 1673. 

(Above the last) Sir George Staunton (iSoi), who concluded the 
treaty with Tippoo Saib in 1784. Monument by Chantrey. 

Peter Heylin (1662), the independent canon of Westminster who 
defied Dean Williams from the pulpit. He was ousted by the Com- 
monwealth, returned at the Restoration, and was buried under his 
seat as sub-dean, in accordance with his own desire, for he related 
that on the night before he was seized with his last illness he dreamed 
that " his late Majesty " Charles I. appeared to him and said, " Peter, 
I will have you buried under your seat in church, for you are rarely seen 
but there or at your study." 

Charles Agar, Earl of Normanton and Archbishop of Dublin (1809). 
A monument by Bacon, 

We now enter the Nave (length i66 ft.; breadth, with 
aisles, 71 ft. 9 in.). 

(First Arch) Philip Carteret {l^ 10), son of Lord George Carteret, who 
died a Westminster scholar. A figure of Time bears a scroll with 
some pretty Sapphic verses by Dr. Freind, then second master of the 
school. Monument by David. 

(Third Arch) Dr. Richard Mead (1754), the famous physician, who 
refused to prescribe for Su- R. Walpole till Dr. John Freind was 
released from the Tower. He " lived more in the broad sunshine of 
life than almost any man,"* being for nearly half a century at the head 

• Boswell's Johnson, iv. 222. 



332 WALKS IN LONDON. 

of his profession. He was a great collector of books and pictures, and 
is extolled by Dibdin * as the " ever-renowned Richard Mead, whose 
pharmacopceal reputation is lost in the blaze of his bibliomaniacal 
glory." Pope speaks of — 

" Rare monkish manuscripts for Heame alone. 
And books for Mead, and butterflies for Sloane."t 

Mead is buried in the Temple Church. His monument here has a bust 
by Scheemakers. 

Spencer Perceval, Chancellor of the Exchequer (1812), assassinated 
in the lobby of the House of Commons by Bellingham. His recum- 
bent effigy with figures of Truth and Temperance at his feet lies in a 
window too high up to be examined. A bas-relief represents the 
murder. The monument is by Westmacott. 

Against the choir screen are two large monuments — 

(Left) Sir Isaac Newtott (1727), the author of the *' Principia," and 
the greatest philosopher of which any age can boast. His body, after 
lying in state in Jerusalem Chamber, was carried in state to the grave, 
his pall being borne by the Lord Chancellor and such Dukes and Earls 
as were Fellows of the Royal Society. His tomb, by Rysbrack^ is 
inscribed — 

" Isaacus Newtonius, 
Quem Immortalem 
Testantur Tempus, Natura, Coelom ; 
Mortalem 
Hoc marmor fatetur." 
" Nature and Nature's laws lay hid in night ; 
God said, Let Newton be, and all was light." J 

The grave beneath the monument bears the words — " Hie depositum 
quod mortale fuit Isaaci Newtoni." 

" No one ever left knowledge in a state so diiferent from that in 
which he found it. Men were instructed not only in new truths, but 
in new methods of discovering old truth : they were made acquainted 
with the great principle which connects together the most distant 
regions of space as well as the most remote periods of duration, and 
which was to lead to further discoveries far beyond what the wisest or 
most sanguine could anticipate." — Dr. Playfair. Prelim. Dissert. 

"In Sir Isaac Newton two kinds of intellectual power — which have 
little in common and which are not often foimd together in a very 

• " Bibliomania," ed. 1842, 364. + Epist. 4. % Pope, iii. 378. 



THE NAVE. 



333 



high degree of vigour, but which, nevertheless, are equally necessary in 
the most sublime departments of natural philosophy — were united as 
they have never been united before or since. There may have been 
minds as happily constituted as his for the cultivation of pure mathe- 
matical science ; there may have been minds as happily constituted for 
the cultivation of science purely experimental ; but in no other mind 
have the demonstrative faculty and the inductive faculty co-existed in 
such supreme excellence and perfect harmony." — Macaulay. Hist, of 
England, i. iii. 

(Right of entrance) James, Earl Stanhope (1718), Chancellor of the 
Exchequer and Secretary of State. The second and third Earls Stan- 
hope are commemorated in the same monument, which was designed 
by Ke7it and executed by Ryshrack. They are all buried at Chevening. 

Following the North Aisle we may notice — 

(Fourth Arch) Jane Hill {i6t,i). A curious small black eflfigy, in- 
teresting as the only ancient monument in the nave. 

Mrs. Mary Beaufoy (1705). The monument is interesting as the 
work of Grinling Gibbons. 

(Fifth Arch) Thomas Banks, the sculptor (1805), buried at Pad- 
dington. 

(In front of ^■^x^s) Sir Robert T. Wilson (1849) and his wife. A 
modem brass. He is represented in plate armour ; his children are 
beneath. 

John Hunter {I'jgT,), the famous anatomist, moved by the College 
of Surgeons from his first burial-place at St. Martin's-in-the-Fields. 
A brass. 

(At the feet of Hunter) A small square stone bearing the words, " O 
Rare Ben Jonson," He was buried here standing upright, in accord- 
ance with the favour — " eighteen inches of square ground in West- 
minster Abbey " — which he had asked from Charles I., having died in 
great poverty. The inscription, says Aubrey, " was done at the charge 
of Jacob Young (aftei-wards knighted), who, walking there when the 
grave was covering, gave the fellow eighteenpence to cut it." 

" His name can never be forgotten, having by his own good learning, 
and the severity of his nature and manners, very much reformed the 
stage, and indeed the English poetry itself." — Clirendon. 

(Beyond the grave of Wilson) Sir Charles Lyell (1875), who 
" throughout a long and laborious life sought the means of deciphering 
the fragmentary records of the world's history." 



334 WALKS IN LONDON, 

(Sixlli Arch) Dr. John Woodward (1728), Professor of Physic at 
Gresham College, author of many geological works, and founder of the 
geological professorship at Cambridge. His medallion is by Schee- 
makers. 

'* Who Nature's treasures would explore, 
Her mysteries and arcana loiow, 
Must high with lofty Newton soar, 

Must stoop as delving Woodward low." 

Dr. Richard Bentley, 

Captains Harvey and Hutt, who feU off Brest, on board their ships 
the Brunswick and Queen (1794). An enormous and ugly monu- 
ment by the younger Bacon. It represents Britannia decorating their 
urn with wreaths. 

(Seventh Arch) General Stringer Lawrence (1766). A monument, 
by Tayler, erected by the East India Company in honour of the con- 
quest of Pondicherry and the relief of Trichinopoly. The city is seen 
in a relief. 

At the North- West Corner—'' The Whigs' Comer"— are 
the monuments of — 

Charles James Fox (1806), who died at Chiswick, and is buried in 
the North Transept. The great statesman and orator is represented 
as a half-naked figure sprawling into the arms of Liberty in a monument 
by Westmacott, erected by his private friends. 

Captain James Montagu (1794), killed off Brest. The huge monu- 
ment by Flaxman has a relief of the battle. The lions, so utterly 
wanting in life and likeness, were greatly admired at the time of their 
execution. Compare them with the lions by Landseer ! 

Sir James Mackintosh (1832), "jurist, philosopher, historian, states- 
man," buried at Hampstead. The monument is by Theed. 

George Tiemey {1830), long the leader of the Whig party in the 
House of Commons. Monument by R. Westmacott. 

Henry R. Vassal Fox, ^rd Lord HoVand (1840), nephew of the 
statesman, well known as a literary Maecenas. A huge monument by 
Bailyy representing " the Prison-House of Death," bearing a bust, 
but with no word of inscription to indicate whom it is intended to 
honour. 

Sir Richard Fletcher (1812), killed at the storming of St. Sebastian. 
Monument by Baily. 



I 



THE NAVE, 335 

James Rennell (1830), the Asiatic and African geographer. A bust 
by Baily. 

Zachary Macaulay (1838) (father of the historian, buried at the ceme- 
tery in Brunswick Square), who fought by the side of Wilberforce in 
the anti-slavery movement, and " conferred freedom on eight hxmdred 
thousand slaves." A bust by Weekes. 

West Wall— 

John Conduitt (1737), Master of the Mint, successor and nephew of 
Sir Isaac Newton, whose monument is opposite. The tomb is by 
Cheere. In the cornice an inscription is inserted commemorative of 
Jeremiah Horrocks, Curate of Poole. 

(Over the west door) William Pitt (1806), Chancellor of the Ex- 
chequer. He is represented in the act of declamation, with History 
recording his words, and Anarchy writhing at his feet. 

(Beyond door) Admiral Sir Thomas Hardy (1732), distinguished in 
the naval wars of Queen Anne. Monument by Cheere. 

(Outside Baptistery) Sir George Cornewall (1743), killed in battle off 
Toulon, in honour of which Parliament voted this enormous monument 
by Tayler, in which the whole sea-fight is represented. 

The stained glass of the west window (Moses, Aaron, 
and the Patriarchs) was executed in the reign of George II, 
It is from this end of the minster that its long aisles are 
seen in the full glory of their aerial perspective. 

" The Abbey Church is beheld as a rare structure, with so small and 
slender pillars (greatest legs argue not the strongest man) to suppcat so 
weighty a fabrick." — Fuller's Worthies. 

** The door is closed, but soft and deep 
Aroimd the awful arches sweep 
Such airs as soothe a hermit's sleep. 

** From each carv'd nook and fretted bend 
Cornice and gallery seem to send 
Tones that with seraph hymns might blend. 

«* Three solemn parts together twine 
In harmony's mysterious line ; 
Three solemn aisles approach the shrine. 



336 WALKS IN LONDON, 

** Yet all are one — together all 
In thoughts that awe but not appal 
Teach the adoring heart to faU." 

John Kehle, 

Behind Cornewall's tomb is the Baptistery, It con- 
tains — 

(At the back of Cornewall's tomb) Hon. James Craggs (1720), who, 
the son of a shoemaker, became Secretary of State, yet was so conci- 
liating in his manners that in his lifetime he was universally honoured 
and beloved. Pope, who was his devoted friend, took the greatest 
interest in the progress and erection of his statue, which is by the 
Italian sculptor Guelphi, and he wrote the epitaph so severely criticised 
by Dr. Johnson — 

" Statesman, yet friend to truth ! of soul sincere, 
In action faithful, and in honour clear ! 
Who broke no promise, serv'd no private end ; 
Who gain'd no title, and who lost no friend ; 
Ennobled by himself, by all approv'd, 
Prais'd, wept, and honour' d by the Muse he lov'd.** 

Unfortunately the fair fame of Craggs was not imtamished after 
his death, which was nominally caused by the smallpox, but is supposed 
to have been really due to the anxiety he underwent during the Parlia- 
mentary Inquiry into the South Sea Swindle, in the subscription list 
of which his name was down for the fictitious sum of_;i^659,ooo. 

William Wordsworth, the poet (1850), buried at Grassraere — a 
statue by Lough. 

John Kehle {1866), author of "The Christian Year," buried at 
Hursley — a feeble monument with a bust by Woolner. 

Here also is buried, without a monument, the famous Jacobite Dean, 
Atterbury, Bishop of Rochester (173 1 -2), the brilliant controversial 
writer and orator. His devotion to the cause of the Stuarts led to his 
being committed to the Tower under George I. and soon after to his 
banishment. He died at Paris, and was privately interred, as he 
desired, " as far from kings and kaisers as possible." 

On entering the South Aisle of the Nave we see above us 
the oak gallery opening from the Deanery, from whence the 



THE NAVE. 337 

roval family have been accustomed to watch processions in 
the Abbey. We may notice the monuments of — 

(Above the door leading to the Deanery and Jerusalem Chamber) 
Hejiry Wharton, the favourite chaplain of Archbishop Sancroft, author 
of many works on ecclesiastical history. " His early death was deplored 
by men of all parties as an irreparable loss to letters." * Archbishop 
Tenison attended his funeral, and an anthem, composed for the occa- 
sion by Purcell, was sung over his grave. 

William Congreve (1728), the licentious dramatist, so grossly extolled 
by Dryden in the lines — 

** Heaven, that but once was prodigal before, 
To Shakspeare gave as much, he could not give him more." 

The monument, with a medallion by Bird, was " sett up by Henrietta, 
Duchess of Marlborough, as a mark how dearly she remembers the 
happiness and honour she enjoyed in the friendship of so worthy and 
honest a man." "Happiness perhaps, but not honour," said the old 
Duchess Sarah when she heard of the epitaph, but the Duchess 
Henrietta, to whom Congreve had bequeathed ^^7000, which she spent 
in a diamond necklace, f carried her adulation farther than thi? stone, 
for she had an ivory statue of Congreve, " to which she would talk as 
to the li\dng Mr. Congreve, with all the freedom of the most polite and 
unreserved conversation," which moved by clockwork, upon her table, 
and she had also a wax figure of him whose feet were bHstered and 
anointed by her doctors, as Congreve's had been when he was attacked 
by the gout. J 

Beneath the monument of Congreve, Mrs. Anne Oldfield, the actress, 
was buried with the utmost pomp in 1730, " in a very fine Brussels lace 
head, a Holland shift, and double ruffles of the same lace, a pair of new 
kid gloves, and her body wrapped in a winding-sheet." To this Pope 
alludes in the lines — 

" Odious, in woollen ! 'twould a saint provoke 
("Were the last words that poor Narcissa spoke) ; 
No, let a charming chintz and Brussels lace 
Dress my cold limbs and shade my hfeless face ; 
One would not, sure, be frightful when one's dead — 
And — Betty, give this cheek a Httle red." 

• Macaulay, " Hist, of England," ii. e 
t Dr. Young in Spence's Anecdotes. 
X See Macaulay's "Essays," vi. 531. 

VOL. II. 2 



338 WALKS IN LONDON, 

Dr. John Freind (1728), the eminent physician who was imprisoned 
in the Tower for his friendship with Atterbury, and released by the 
influence of Dr. Mead with Sir R. Walpole. He is buried at Hitchin. 
The monument here has a bust by RysbrcLck and an epitaph by Samuel 
Wesley. 

Thomas Sprat (1713), Bishop of Rochester, the royalist Dean of 
Westminster who refused to allow the name of the regicide Milton to 
appear in the abbey. His son Thomas, Archdeacon of Rochester, is 
commemorated with him in this monument by Bird, which was erected 
by Dr. John Freind. 

" Unhappily for his fame, it has been usual to print his verses in 
collections of the British poets ; and those who judge of him by his 
verses must consider him as a servile imitator, who, without one spark of 
Cowley's admirable genius, mimicked whatever was least commendable 
in Cowley's manner ; but those who are acquainted with Sprat's 
prose writings will form a very different estimate of his powers. He 
was, indeed, a great master of our language, and possessed at once the 
eloquence of the orator, of the controversialist, and of the historian." — 
Macaulay's Hist, of Englattd, ii. vi. 

Joseph Wilcocks (1756), the Dean of Westminster under whom the 
much-abused western towers of the abbey were erected by Wren. 
They are triumphantly exhibited on his monument by Cheere, and he 
is buried under the south-west tower. 

(Above these) Admiral Richard Tyrrell (1766), an immense monu- 
ment like a nightmare, which closes three parts of the window. The 
admiral, who was a nephew of the Sir Peter Warren whose tomb is in 
the north transept, was distinguished when commanding the Bucking- 
ham against the French. He died and was buried at sea. Nathaniel 
Read, a pupil of Roubiliac, has represented his ascent — a naked figure 
— from the waves to heaven. Beneath are, in wild confusion, the 
coralline depths of the sea, a number of allegorical figm-es, and the 
Buckingham, jammed into a rock. 

Zachary Pearce (1769), Bishop of Rochester and the Dean of West- 
minster who proposed to remove the glorious tomb of Aylmer de 
Valence to set up the cenotaph of General Wolfe.* He is bmied at 
Bromley. The monument here has a bust by Tyler. 

William Buckland (1856), Dean of Westminster and first Professor 
»f Geology at Oxford. Bust by Weekes. 
Mrs. Katharine Bovey (1724) — a monument by Gibhs the architect, 

* See Walpole's Letters. 



THE NAVE, 339 

erected by Mrs. Mary Pope, who lived with her nearly forty years in 
perfect friendship^with an astonishing epitaph, 

John Thomas (1793), Dean of Westminster and Bishop of Rochester. 
A bust by Ryshrack, 

(Above) John Ireland (1713), Dean of Westminster and Founder of 
the Ireland Scholarships. A bust by Turnouth. (Over these, in the 
window) Gen. Viscount Howe (1758), killed on the march to Ticon- 
deroga. In the monument, by Scheemakers, the genius of Massachusetts 
Bay sits disconsolate at the foot of an obelisk bearing the arms of the 
deceased. 

Opposite these, in the Nave, are a group of interesting 
grave-stones : viz. — 

Thomas Tompson (1713), and George Graham (1751), the first 
English Watchmakers. 

David Livingstone (1873), -^^ Missionary, Traveller, and Philan- 
thropist. 

Robert Stephenson (1859), the famous engineer — a brass. 

Sir Charles Barry (i860), the architect — a brass. 

Sir George Pollock (1872), Constable of the Tower. 

Colin Campbell, Lord Clyde (1863). 

Returning to the South Aisle, beginning from the Cloister 
door, we see — 

General George Wade (1748), celebrated for his mihtary roads. The 
monument — in which Time, endeavouring to overthrow the memory of 
the dead (a trophical pillar), is repelled by Fame — is a disgrace to 

Roubiliac. 

Sir James Outram (1863), the Indian hero — a bust by Noble, 

Col. Charles Herries (1819) — a monument by Chantrey, 

Carola Morland (1674) ^^^ Anne Morland (1679-80). Two monu- 
ments to the two wives of Sir Samuel Morland, Secretary of OUver 
Cromwell, who wrote the "History of the Evangelical Churches of 
Piedmont." He is regarded as the inventor of the Speaking Trumpet 
and Fire Engine. He has displayed his learning here in inscriptions 
in Hebrew, Greek, Ethiopic, and English. 

General James Fleming (1750) — a monument by Roubiliac, 



340 WALKS IN LONDON, 

Sir Charles Harhoard and Clement Cottrell (1672), friends who 
perished with the Earl of Sandwich in the Royal Jaynes, destroyed 
by a fire-ship in a naval engagement with the Dutch off the coast of 
Suffolk. 

(Over the last) William Har grave (1750), Governor of Gibraltar. 
On the monument Hargrave is seen rising from the tomb, while Time 
has overthrown Death, and is breaking his dart. A much-extolled 
work of Rouhiliac. 

Sidney, Earl of Godolphin (1712). "Prime Minister during the 
first nine glorious years of the reign of Queen Anne." Burnet speaks 
of him as " the silentest and modestest man that was, perhaps, ever 
bred in a court." The monument, by Bird, was erected by his daughter- 
in-law Henrietta Godolphin. 

Col. Roger Townshend (1759), killed at Ticonderoga in North 
America. The architecture of the monument is by R. Adams the 
architect, the relief by Eckstein. 

Sir Palmer Fairhorne (1680), Governor of Tangiers. The monument 
is by T. Bushnell, the epitaph by Dryden. 

Major John Andre (1780), who, during the American war, was 
hanged as a spy by Washington, in spite of the pathetic petition that 
he would " adapt the mode of his death to his feelings as a man of 
honour." He was buried under the gallows near the river Hudson, 
but, in 1 82 1, his remains were honourably restored by the Americans, 
on the petition of the Duke of York. The monument, erected for 
George III. by Van Gelder, bears a relief representing Washington 
receiving the petition of Andre as to the manner of his death. The 
head of Andre has been twice knocked off and stolen, but that this 
was from no personal feeling is indicated by the fact that a head is also 
missing in the relief on the neighbouring monument of R. Townsend. 
Both the heads being easy to reach, were probably broken off "by the 
Westminster boys to play at sconce with in the cloisters." * 

South Aisle of Choir — 

(Right) Admiral George Churchill (1710), brother of the great Duke 
of Marlborough. 

Major Richard Creed (1704), "who attended William HI. in all his 
wars," and was killed in the Battle of Blenheim. 

Sir Richard Bingham (1598), celebrated in the wars of Mary and 
Elizabeth — a small black monument with a curious epitaph recounting 
the varied scenes of his warfare. 

* See Smith's Life cf No'lckens. 



SOUTH AISLE OF CHOIR. 341 

Martin Ffolkes (1754), celebrated as a numismatist, President of the 
Royal Society — buried at Hillingdon. 

Dr. Isaac Watts (1674). " The first of the Dissenters who courted 
attention by the graces of language." * Buried at Bunhill Fields 
A tablet witi; a reUef by Banks. 

George Stepney (1707), Ambassador in the reigns of William III. and 
Anne. 

John Wesley (1790) and Charles Wesley (1780) — medallions. 

William Wragg (1 777), lost by shipwreck on his passage as a 
refugee from South Carolina. His son floated on a package, supported 
by a black slave, till cast upon the shore of Holland. The shipwreck 
is seen in a relief. 

Sir Cloudesley Shovel (1707), Commander-in-Chief of the Fleet. As 
he was returning with his fleet from Gibraltar his ship was wrecked on 
** the Bishop and his Clerks " off" the roast of Scilly. His body was 
washed on shore, buried, disinterred, and after Ipng in state at his 
house in Soho Square, was laid in the abbey. In this abominable 
monument by Bird he is represented in his own well-known wig, but 
with a Roman cuirass and sandals ! " Sir Cloudesley Shovel's monu- 
ment has often given me great offence. Instead of the brave rough 
English Admiral, which was the distinguishing character of that plain 
gallant man, he is represented on his tomb by the figure of a beau, 
dressed in a long periwig, and reposing himself upon velvet cushions, 
under a canopy of state. The inscription is answerable to the monu- 
ment ; for, instead of celebrating the many remarkable actions he had 
performed in the service of his country, it acquaints us only with the 
manner of his death, in which it was impossible for him to reap any 
honour." — Spectator, No. 26. 

(Above Sir C. Shovel) Sir Godfrey Kneller (1723), the great portrait 
painter from the time of Charles II. to George L, the only painter 
commemorated in the abbey. Even he is not buried here, but at 
Kneller Hall, in accordance with his exclamation to Pope upon his 
death-bed — " By God, I will not be buried in Westminster, they do 
bury fools there." He designed his own monument, however: the 
bust is by Rysbrack, and Pope wrote the epitaph — 

"Kneller, by Heaven, and not a master, taught, 
Whose art was nature, and whose pictures thought— 
When now two ages he has snatched from fate 
Whate'er was beauteous, or whate'er was great— 

• Dr. Johnson. 



342 WALKS IN LONDON, 

Rests, crowned with princes' honours, poets' laj^ 
Due to his merit and brave thirst of praise : 
Living, great Nature fear'd he might outvie 
Her works ; and dying, fears herself may die." 

Left Wall {of Choir)-^ 

Thomas Thynne, of Longleat (1681-2), murdered at the foot of the 
Haymarket by the hired assassins of Count Konigsmarck, in jealousy 
for his being accepted as the husband of the great heiress Ehzabeth 
Percy, then the child-widow of Lord Ogle. The murder is graphically 
represented in a relief upon the monument, by Quellin. 

** A Welshman, bragging of his family, said his father's effigy was set 
up in Westminster Abbey ; being asked whereabouts, he said, * In the 
same monument with Squire Thynne^ for he was his coachman.' " — yoe 
Miller's Jests. 

Thomas Owen (1598), Judge of Common Pleas in the time of 
Elizabeth — a fine old monument of the period. 

Pasquale de Paoli (1807), the Itahan patriot — a bust by Flaxman, 

Dame Grace Gethin (1697), whose book of devotions was published 
after her death by Congreve, with a prefatory poem. He believed or 
pretended that its contents were original, " noted down by the authoress 
with her pencil at spare hours, or as she was dressing ; " but the 
" Reliquiae Gethinianse " are chiefly taken from Lord Bacon and other 
authors : "the marble book in Westminster Abbey must, therefore, 
lose most of its leaves." * 

* Sir Thomas Richardson (1634), Speaker of the House of Commons, 
Judge of Common Pleas, created Lord Chief Justice by Charles I. He 
was known as " the jeering Lord Chief Justice," who, when he was 
reprimanded by Laud for an order he had issued against the ancient 
custom of wakes, protested in a fury that " the lawn sleeves had 
almost choked him," and who, when he condemned Prynne, said that 
he " might have the book of martyrs to amuse him." This tomb is the 
last till a hundred and fifty years were past which had any pretensions 
to real art. It is of black marble, and has a most noble bust by 
Hubert le Soeur. 

William Thynne of Botterville (1584), Receiver of the Marches 
under Henry VIII. — a noble figure in armour, lying on a mat. 

Andrew Bell (1832), founder of the Madras system of education — a 
tablet by Behnes. 

• D'Israeli, " Curiosities of Literature," vol. iv. 



THE CHOIR, 



343 



We must now enter the Choir^ which, as has been already 
observed, projects into the nave after the fashion of Spanish 
cathedrals. Its reredos was erected in 1867. 

Four of the Abbots of Westminster are buried in the 
space in front of the altar. Abbot Richard de Ware (1284), 
who brought the beautiful mosaic pavement back with him 
from ^oxi\&\ Abbot Wenlock (1308), under whom the buildings 
of Henry III. were completed ; the unworthy Abbot Kydyngion 
(13 1 5), whose election was obtained by the influence of 
Piers Gaveston with Edward II.; and Abbot Henley (1344). 

On the left are three beautiful royal monuments which 
we have already seen from the northern ambulatory — Ave- 
line, Aylmer de Valence, and Edmund Crouchback; but here 
alone can we examine the beautiful effigy of Aveline, Countess 
of Lancaster (1273), daughter of William de Fortibus, Earl of 
Albemarle and Holdernesse, the greatest heiress in England 
in the time of Henry III., when she was married in the 
Abbey to his younger son, Edmund Crouchback, in 1273. 
She is dressed in a flowing mantle, but wears the disfiguring 
gorget of white cambric, with a vizor for the face, which 
was fashionable at the time, as a female imitation of the 
helmets of the crusading knights. "The splendour of such 
works, when the gilding and emblazoning were fresh, may 
easily be imagined ; but it may be a question whether they 
do not make a stronger appeal to the sentiment in their 
more sombre and subdued colour, than they would if they 
were in the freshness of their original decoration." • 

On the right, nearest the altar, are the sedilia shown as 
the tomb of Sebert and Ethelgoda, noticed from the 
southern aisle. They were once decorated with eight 

• Professor Westmacott. 



344 WALKS IN LONDON. 

paintings of figures, of which two, Henry III. and Sebert, 
remain : one of the lost figures represented Edward 
the Confessor. Next is the tomb of Anne of Cleves, the 
repudiated fourth wife of Henry VHI. She continued to 
reside in England, treated with great honour by her step- 
children, and her last public appearance was at the corona- 
tion of Mary, to which she rode in the same carriage with 
the Princess Elizabeth. " She was," says Holinshed, " a 
lady of right commendable regard, courteous, gentle, a 
good housekeeper, and very bountiful to her servants." 
She died peacefully at Chelsea, 1557, and was magnificently 
buried by Mary at the feet of King Sebert. Her tomb was 
never finished, but may be recognised by her initials A. and 
C, several times repeated. " Not one of Henry's wives had 
a monument," wrote Fuller, " except Anne of Cleves, and 
hers but half a one."* Here hangs the famous Portrait of 
Richard /I., " the oldest contemporary representation of 
an English sovereign" (beautifully restored by Richmond), 
which long hung in the Jerusalem Chamber, but had been 
removed thither from its present position. " That beautiful 
picture of a king sighing," says Weever (163 1), "crowned in 
a chaire of estate, at the upper end of the quire in this 
church, is said to be of Richard II., which witnesseth how 
goodly a creature he was in outward lineaments." The 
portrait represents a pale delicate face, with a long, thin, 
weak, drooping mouth and curling hair. 

" Was this face the face 
That every day under his household roof 
Did keep ten thousand men ? Was this the face 

•Katberire Parr, buried at Sndeley Castle, has \ modern monument of tiia 
greatest beauty. 



THE CHOIR. 345 

That, like the sun, did make beholders wink ? 
Was this the face that fac'd so many follies. 
And was at last out-fac'd by Bolingbroke ? 
A brittlt glory shineth in this face." 

Richard II., Act. iv. sc. I. 

A piece of tapestry now hangs here which was brought 
from Westminster School ; the tapestries which adorned the 
choir in the seventeenth century represented the story of 
Hugolin and the robber.* 

In 1378 this choir was the scene of a crime which recalls 
the murder of Becket in Canterbury Cathedral. Two 
knights, Schakell and Hawle, who fought with the Black 
Prince in Spain, had taken prisoner a Spanish Count, whom 
they compelled to the duties of a valet. The delivery of 
this prisoner was demanded by John of Gaunt, who claimed 
the crown of Cnstile in right of his wife. The knights refused, 
and fled into sanctuary. Thither Sir Alan Buxhall, Constable 
of the Tower, and Sir Ralph Ferrars, with fifty armed men, 
pursued them. For greater safety the knights fled into the 
very choir itself, where high-mass was being celebrated ; 
but as the deacon reached the words in the gospel of the 
day, *' If the good man of the house had known what time 
the thief would appear," their assailants burst in. Schakell 
escaped, but Hawle fled round and round the choir, pursued 
by his enemies, and at length fell covered with wounds at 
the foot of the Prior's Stall : his servant and one of the monks 
were slain with him. This flagrant violation of sanctuary 
occasioned unspeakable horror. The culprits were excom- 
municated and heavily fined, the desecrated Abbey was 
closed for four months, and Parliament was not permitted 
to sit within the polluted precincts. 

• See Weever, " Funeral Monuments." 



346 WALKS IN LONDON, 

A door at the eastern angle of Poets* Comer is the 
approach to the noble Crypt under the Chapter House. 
It has a short massive round pillar in the centre, from 
which eight simple groins radiate over the roof. The pillar 
has two cavities supposed to have been used as hiding- 
places for treasures of the church. Six small windows 
give light to the crypt. On the east is a recess for 
an altar, with an ambrey on one side and a piscina on the 
other. 

The southern bay of the South Transept was formerly 
partitioned off as the Chapel of St. Blaise. Dort mentions 
that its entrance was " enclosed with three doors, the inner 
cancellated, the middle, which is very thick, lined with 
skins like parchment, and driven full of nails. These 
skins, they, by tradition, tell us, were some skins of the 
Danes, tanned and given here as a memorial of our delivery 
from them." Only one of the doors remains now, but the 
others existed within the memory of man, and traces of 
them are still visible. Owen Tudor, uncle of Henry VII. 
and son of Queen Katherine de Valois, who became a monk 
in the Abbey, was buried in the Chapel of St. Blaise, with 
Abbot Littlington, 1386, and Benson, first abbot and then 
dean, 1549. 

Beneath the monument of Oliver Goldsmith is the 
entrance to the Old Revestry, or Chapel of St. Faithj which 
is a very lofty and picturesque chamber, half passage, halt 
chapel. An enormous buttress following the line of the 
pillars in the transept cuts off the tracery of the arches on 
the south. At the western end is a kind of bridge, by 
which the monks descended from the dormitory, entering 
the church by a winding staircase, which was probably 



THE CHAPTER HOUSE, 347 

removed to make way for the Duke of Argyle's monument.* 
Over the altar is a figure shown by Abbot Ware's " Customs 
of the Abbey" to have been intended to represent St. Faith; 
below is a small representation of the Crucifixion, and on 
one side a kneeling monk, with the lines — 

" Me, quern culpa gravis premit, erige Virgo suavis ; 
Fac mihi placatum Christum, deleasque reatum," 

which has led to the belief that it was the penitential offer- 
ing of a monk. 

From hence (if the door is open +) we can enter the 
beautiful portico leading from the cloisters to the Chapter 
House, finished in 1253 ; the original paving remains ; it is 
deeply worn by the feet of the monks. Here Abbot Byrch- 
eston (1349) is buried, who died of the plague called the 
Black Death, with twenty-six of his monks. Here also a 
group of persons connected with the earliest history of the 
abbey were buried — King Sebert and Queen Ethelgoda 
(or Actelgod), who lay here before they were moved to the 
choir, with Ricula, the king's sister ; Hugolin, the treasurer 
of Edward the Confessor ; Edwin, the first abbot ; and 
Sulcardus, the monk who was the first historian of the 
abbey4 Flete gives the epitaph which hung over Edwin's 
grave— 

" Iste locellus habet bina cadavera claustro ; 

Uxor Seberti, prima tamen minima ; 
Defracta capitis testa, clarus Hugolinus 

A claustro noviter hie translatus erat ; 
Abbas Edvinus et Sulcardus caenobita ; 

Sulcardus major est. — Deus assit eis." 

• Sir G. Scott's " Gleanings." 

t If not, go round by Dean's Yard to the CloisterV* 

t His MS. is in the Cottonian Library. 



348 WALKS IN LONDON. 

On the left of the steps is a Roman stone coffin bearing 
an inscription saying that it was made for Valerius Aman- 
diniis by his two sons. A Maltese cross on the lid and 
traces of a cope show that it was afterwards appropriated for 
an ecclesiastic. It was found near the north side of the 
Chapter House. 

The Chapter House of Westminster, which is the largest in 
England except that of Lincoln, was built by Henry HI. in 
1250, upon the ancient crypt of the Chapter House of 
Edward the Confessor. Matthew Paris (1250) says of 
Henry HI., " Dominus Rex sedificavit capitulum incompa- 
rabile," and at the time it was built there was nothing to be 
compared to it. Hither his granddaughter, Eleanor, Duchess 
of Bar, eldest daughter of Edward I., was brought from 
France for burial in 1298. 

Here the monks, at least once a week, assembled to hold 
their chapters, in which all the affairs of the monastery 
were discussed. The abbot and the four chief officers took 
their seats in the ornamented stalls opposite the entrance, 
the monks on the stone benches round. In front of the 
stalls criminals were tried, and, if found guilty, were publicly 
flogged against the central pillar of Purbeck marble (35 ft. 
high), which was used as a whipping-post. 

But the monks had not sole possession of the Chapter 
House, for, as early as 1282, when the Houses of Lords and 
Commons were separated, the House of Commons began 
to hold its sittings here, and for three hundred years it con- 
tinued to hold them, sometimes in the Refectory, but 
generally in the Chapter House. This chamber has there- 
fore witnessed the principal acts which have been the 
foundation of the civil and religious liberties of England. 



THE CHAPTER HOUSE. 349 

The Speaker probably occupied the abbot's stall, and the 
members the benches of the monks and the floor of the 
house. The placards of the business of the House were 
affixed to the central pillar. Among the special assemblies 
convened here was that of Henry V., who in 1421 sum- 
moned sixty abbots and priors and three hundred monks 
to discuss the reform of the Benedictine Order, and that of 
Wolsey, who in 1523, as Cardinal Legate, summoned the 
convocations of Canterbury and York to a spot where they 
might be beyond the jurisdiction of the Archbishop of 
Canterbury. 

The last Parliament which sate here was on the last day 
of the life of Henry VHI., when the act of attainder was 
passed on the Duke of Norfolk, and here, while it was 
sitting, must the news have been brought in that the 
terrible king was dead. 

"Within the Chapter House must have passed the first Clergy 
Discipline Act, the first Clergy Residence Act, and, chief of all, the 
Act of Supremacy and the Act of Submission. Here, to acquiesce in 
that Act, met the Convocation of the Province of Canterbury. On the 
table in this Chapter House must have been placed the famous Black 
Book, which sealed the fate of all the monasteries of England, 
including the Abbey of Westminster close by, and which struck such a 
thrill of horror through the House of Commons when they heard its 
contents." — Dean Stanley. 

The Chapter House passed to the Crown at the dissolu- 
tion of the monastery, and seven years afterwards the 
House of Commons removed to St. Stephen's Chapel in 
the palace of Westminster. From that time the Chapter 
House was used as Record Office, and its walls were dis- 
figured and its space blocked up by bookcases. In 1865 
the Records were removed to the Rolls House, and the 



350 WALKS IN LONDON. 

restoration of the building was begun under Sir Gilbert 
Scott. 

The Chapter House is now almost in its pristine beauty. 
The roof is rebuilt. All the windows have been restored 
from the one specimen which remained intact. They are 
remarkable for their early introduction of quatrefoils, and 
are shown by the bills to have been completed in 1253, 
before the completion of the Sainte Chapelle in Paris, 
which is the same in style. Over the entrance is a 
throned figure of the Saviour, replacing one which is known 
to have existed there : the figures at the sides, representing 
the Annunciation, are ancient, and, though stiff, are ad- 
mirable. Many of the ancient wall-paintings are preserved. 
Those at the east end, representing the Seraphs around the 
Throne — on which our Lord is seated with hands held up 
and chest bared to show the sacred wounds — are of the 
fourteenth century. The niches on either side of the 
central one are occupied by six winged Cherubim, the 
feathers of their wings having peacock's eyes, to carry out 
the idea, " they are full of eyes within." On one of them 
the names of the Christian virtues are written on the 
feathers of the wings.* The other paintings round the 
walls, representing scenes from the Revelation of St. 
John, are of the fifteenth century, and are all traced 
to a monk of the convent — ^John of Northampton. The 
tiles of the floor, with their curious heraldic emblems, are 
ancient. 

A glass-case is filled with ancient deeds belonging to the 
history of the abbey — including a grant of Offa, King of the 
Mercians, 785; and of King Edgar, 951 — 962; and the 

• See Sir G, Scott's " Gleanings from Westminster Abbey," 



THE CLOISTERS. 351 

Charter of Edward the Confessor dated on the day of Holy 
Innocents, 1065. Another case contains fragments of 
tombs and other relics found in the abbey. 

The Cloisters are of different dates, from the time of the 
Confessor to that of Edward III. The central space was a 
burial-ground for the monks. The abbots were buried in the 
arcades, but these were also a centre of monastic life, and 
in the western cloister the Master of the Novices kept a 
school "which was the first beginning of Westminster School." 
In the southern cloister the operations of washing were 
carried on at the " lavatory," and here also, by the rules of 
the convent, the monks were compelled to have their heads 
shaved by the monastic barber — once a fortnight in summer 
and once in three weeks in winter. 

*• The approach to the Abbey through these gloomy monastic re- 
mains prepares the mmd for its solemn contemplation. The cloisters 
still retain something of the quiet and seclusion of former days. The 
grey walls are discoloured by damp, and crumbling with age : a coat of 
hoary moss has gathered over the inscriptions of the several monuments, 
and obscured the death's-heads and other funereal emblems. The roses 
which adorned the keystones have lost their leafy beauty : everything 
bears marks of the gradual dilapidation of time, which yet has some- 
thing touching and pleasing in its very decay." — Washington Irving. 
The Sketch Book. 

In the East Cloister (built in the thirteenth and fourteenth 
centuries) the great feature is the beautiful double door of the 
Chapter House. The mouldings of the outer arch are deco- 
rated with ten small figures on either side, in niches formed 
by waving foliage, of which the stem springs from the 
lowest figure — probably Jesse. The tympanum is covered 
with exquisite scroll-work, terribly injured by time, and has 
a mutilated statue of the Virgin and Child, with angels 
on either side. 



352 



WALKS IN LONDON. 



In this wall, just to the south of the entrance of the 
Chapter House, is the iron-bound entrance to the Ancient 
Treasury of the Kings of England. It is a double door opened 
by six keys, and till lately could only be unlocked by a 
special order from the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury 
— the permission of the Secretary of the Treasury, the 
Chancellor of the Exchequer, and the Comptroller of the 




Chapel of the Pyx, Westminster. 



Exchequer is still said to be required. The chamber thus 
mysteriously guarded, generally known now as the Chapel 
cf the Pyx* is the most remarkable remnant we possess of 
the original abbey. It occupies the second and third bays 
of the Confessor's work beneath the Dormitory. The early 
Norman pillar in the centre (Saxon in point of date) has 

* The Pyx is the box in which the specimen pieces are kept at the Mint — pixis 
from pyxos a box-tree. 



THE CHAPEL OF THE PYX, 353 

a cylindrical shaft, 3 ft. 6 in. in diameter and 3 ft. 4 in. 
high. The capital has a great unmoulded abacus, 7 in. 
deep, supported by a primitive moulding, and carrying 
plain groining in the square transverse ribs. It is interest 
ing to see how during the Norman period the massive 
simplicity of this, as of other capitals, seems to have 
tempted the monks to experiments of rude sculpture, here 
incomplete. The ancient stone altar remains. The floor 
is littered with heavy iron-bound chests — some of them 
very curious. But nothing is kept here now but the 
standards of gold and silver, used every five years in 
" the Trial of the Pyx " for determining the justness of 
weight in the gold and silver coins issued from the mint. 
There is nothing to remind one that — 

" Hither were brought the most cherished possessions of the State : 
the Regalia of the Saxon monarchy ; the Black Rood of St. Margaret 
('the Holy Cross of Holyrood ') from Scotland; the 'Crocis Gneyth ' 
(or the Cross of St. Neot) from Wales, deposited here by Edward I. ; 
the Sceptre or Rod of Moses ; the Ampulla of Henry IV. ; the sword 
with which King Athelstane cut through the rock at Dunbar ; the 
sword of Wayland Smith, by which Henry II. was knighted ; the 
sword of Tristan, presented to John by the Emperor; the dagger 
which wounded Edward I. at Acre ; the iron gauntlet worn by John 
of France when taken prisoner at Poitiers." — Dean Stanley. 

The Regalia were kept here in the time of the Common- 
wealth, and Henry Marten was intrusted with the duty of 
invest ga. ing them. He dragged the crown, sword, sceptre, 
&c. from their chest and put them on George Wither, the 
poet, who, " being thus crowned and royally arrayed, first 
marched about the room with a stately garb, and afterwards, 
with a thousand apish and ridiculous actions, exposed those 
sacred ornaments to contempt and laughter."* 

• Wood's Ath. iii. 1239. 
VOL. II. A A 



354 IVALkS IN LONDON, 

In the first bay of the Confessor's work is a narrow space 
under the staircase which now leads to the Library. This 
was the original approach to the Treasury, and here, bound by 
iron bars against the door, are still to be seen fragments of a 
human skin. It is that of one of the robbers who were flayed 
alive in the reign of Henry III. for attempting to break into 
the chapel and carry off the royal treasure. In this narrow 
passage the ornamentation of the capital of the Saxon 
column has been completed. Thousands of MSS. con- 
nected with the abbey have been recently discovered here 
imbedded in the rubbish with which the floor was 
piled up. 

In the cloister, near the Treasury door, is the monument of 
General Henry Withers, 1729, with an epitaph by Pope. 
Beyond the entrance of the Chapter House a small tablet 
commemorates Addison^ s 7noiher, 17 15. Close by is the in- 
teresting monument erected by his brother to Sir Edmo7id 
Berry Godfrey, murdered in 1677 (^^^ Chapter I.). The 
licentious authoress Aphra or Apharra Behn (sent as a spy 
to Antwerp by Charles II. during the Dutch war) was 
buried near the end of the cloister in 1689. Her blue 
gravestone is inscribed — 

** Here lies a proof that wit can never be 
Defence enough against mortality." 

Near her lies Tom Brown, the satirist, 1704. The simple 
inscription here to ^^ Jane Lister, dear childe, 1688," attracts 
greater sympathy than more pretentious epitaphs. 

In the North Cloister (of the thirteenth century) is the 
monument oi Johfi Coleman, 1739, "who served the royal 
familie viz. King Charles II. and King James II. with 



THE CLOISTERS, 355 

approved fidelity above fifty years." Near this is a quaint 
tablet inscribed — 

" With diligence and trvst most exemplary, 
Did William Lavrence serve a Prebendary. 
And for his paines now past, before not lost, 
Gain'd this remembrance at his master's cost. 

O read these lines againe ; you seldome find, 
A servant faithfvll, and a master kind. 

Short hand he wrote ; his flowre in prime did fade* 
And hasty Death Short-hand of him hath made. 
Well covlh he nu'bers, and well mesur'd Land ; 
Thus doth he now that grov'd whereon you stand. 
Wherein he lyes so geometricall : 
Art maketh some, but thus will Nature all. 

Obijt Decern. 28, 162 1, ^tatis suae. 29." 

Close by is the grave of William Markham^ Dean of 
Westminster and Archbishop of York (1807). 

In the West Cloister (of the fourteenth century) are the 
monuments of Charles^ brother to Sidney, Earl of Godolphin, 
1720; and Benjamin Cooke, 1793, musician and organist, 
with his " canon " engraved. Here also are those of the 
engravers William Woollctt, 1785, " incisor excellentissimus," 
with a foolish metaphorical relief by Banks ; and George 
Virtue, who, being a strict Roman Catholic, was laid near a 
monk of his family. 

The South Cloister (fourteenth century) was the burial- 
place of all the abbots down to the time of Henry IH. 
Here (beginning from the east) are buried Postard, Crispin, 
Herbert, VitaHs (appointed by the Conqueror), Gislebert 
(with an effigy), Gervase (a natural son of King Stephen), 
and Hermez. Several of their effigies remain. The blue slab 
called Long Meg is supposed to cover the remains of the 



350 WALKS IN LONDON. 

monks who died of the plague — " the Black Death " — with 
Abbot Byrcheston in 1340. The four lancet-shaped niches 
in the wall are supposed to be remains of the Lavatory. 
Above the whole length of this cloister stretched the 
Refectory of the convent, a vast chamber of the time of 
Edward III. supported by arches which date from the time 
of the Confessor. Some arches of this period may be seen 
in the wall of a little court, entered by a door in the south 
wall : the door on the other side led to the abbey kitchen. 
In the court is a very curious leaden cistern of 1663 with 
the letters R. E. and the date. 

Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough, used to sit in these 
cloisters dressed as a beggar, in her poignant grief for the 
loss of her son. The Duchess of Portland relates that her 
husband saw her there when he was a boy at Westminster 
School. 

Over the eastern cloister was the Dormitory, whence the 
monks descended to the midnight services in the church 
by the gallery in the south transept. It is now divided 
between the Chapter Library and Westminster School. 

The Library of Westminster Abbey (reached from a door 
on the right of that leading to the Chapter House) was 
founded by Dean Williams in 1620. Many of the books 
are valuable, and some of the bindings, of the fifteenth and 
sixteenth centuries, are exceedingly curious and beautiful. 
The room is that described by Washington Irving. 

" I found myself in a lofty antique haU, the roof supported by mas 
sive joists of old English oak. It was soberly lighted by a row ol 
Gothic windows at a considerable height from the floor, and which 
apparently opened upon the roof of the cloisters. An ancient picture, 
of some reverend dignitary of the church in his robes,* hung over the 

• Dean Williams, 1620-50, 



THE INFIRMARY, 



3s: 



fireplace. Around the hall and in a small gallery were the books, 
arranged in carved oaken cases. They consisted principally of old 
polemical writers, and were much more worn by time than use. In the 
centre of the Library was a solitary table, with two or three books on 
it, an inkstand without ink, and a few pens parched by long disuse. 
The place seemed fitted for quiet study and meditation. It was buried 
deep among the massive walls of the Abbey, and shut up from the 
tumult of the world. I could only hear now and then the shouts of 
the schoolboys faintly swelling from the Cloisters, and the sound of a 
bell tolling for prayers, that echoed soberly along the roof of the 
Abbey. By degrees the shouts of merriment grew fainter and fainter, 
and at length died away. The bell ceased to toll, and a profound 
silence reigned through the dusky hall." 

At the southern end of the east cloister was the hifirmaryy 
probably destroyed when the Little Cloister was built, but 
shown by the fragments, which still exist, to be of the age 
of the Confessor. It was so arranged that the sick monks 
could hear the services in the adjoining Chapel of St. 
Catherine. 

•' Hither came the processions of the Convent to see the sick brethren; 
and were greeted by a blazing fire in the Hall, and long rows of candles 
in the Chapel. Here, although not only here, were conducted the 
constant bleedings of the monks. Here, in the Chapel, the young 
monks were privately whipped. Here the invalids were soothed by 
music. Here also I'vcd the seven 'playfellows' (sympectae), the name 
given to the elder monks, who, after the age of fifty, were exempted 
from all the ordinary regulations, were never told anything unpleasant, 
and themselves took the liberty of examimng and censuring everything." 
— Dean Stanley, 

A passage (left) called the Dark Cloister^ and a turn to 
the left under waggon-vaulting of the Confessor's time — 
a substructure of the Dormitory — lead to the Little Cloister, 
a square arcaded court with a fountain in the centre. At 
its south-eastern corner are remains of the ancient bell- 
tower of St. Catherine's Chapel, built by Abbot Littlington. 



3S8 WALKS LV LONDON. 

In this, the Littlingion Tower^ the beautiful Emma Harte, 
afterwards Lady Hamilton, lived as servant to Mr. Dare. 

Hence we may reach the Infirmary Garden, now the 
College Garde7i, a large open space, whence there is a noble 
view of the Abbey and the Victoria Tower. On the north 
side of this was St. Catherine's Chapel (the chapel of the 
Infirmary), destroyed in 157 1, which bore a great part in 
the monastic story.* Here most of the consecrations of 
Bishops before the Reformation took place, with the greater 
part of the provincial councils of Westminster. Here 
Henry III., in the presence of the archbishop and bishops, 
swore to observe the Magna Charta. Here also the memo- 
rable struggle took place (1176) between the Archbishops 
of Canterbury and York, which led to the question of their 
precedence being decided by a papal edict, giving to one 
the title of Primate of all England, to the other that of 
Primate of England. 

" A synod was called at "Westminster, the pope's legate being present 
thereat ; on whose right sat Richard, Archbishop of Canterbury, as ia 
his proper place ; when in springs Roger of York, and finding Canter- 
bury so seated, fairly sits him down on Canterbury's lap ; (a baby too 
big to be danced thereon !) yea, Canterbury's servants dandled this 
lap-child with a witness, who plucked him thence, and bufieted him to 
purpose." — Fuller's Church History. 

A winding staircase in the cloister wall, opposite the 
entrance to the Chapter House, leads to the Muniment 
Room, a gallery above what should have been the west aisle 
of the South Transept, cut off by the cloister. Here, on the 
plastered wall, is a great outline painting of the White Hart, 
the badge of Richard II. The archives of the Abbey are 

* It had a nave and aisle of five bays long, and a chancel, and was of good 
late Norman vvcrk. 



THE TRIFORIUM. 359 

kept in a number of curious oaken chests, some of which 
are of the thirteenth century. There is a noble view of 
the Abbey from hence, but no one should omit to ascend 
the same staircase farther to the Triforium. Here, from 
the broad galleries, the Abbey is seen in all its glory, and 
here alone the beauty of the arches of the triforium itself 
can be perfectly seen. It is also interesting from hence to 
see how marked is the difference between the earlier and 
later portions of the nave, the five earlier bays to the east 
having detached columns and a diapered wall-surface, which 
ceases afterwards. Over the southern aisle of the nave are 
Gibbons's carved Obelisks^ which are seen in old pictures 
as standing at the entrance of the choir. The triforium 
ends in the chamber in the south-western tower, which is 
supposed to be haunted by the ghost of Bradshaw, who is 
said to have made it a frequent resort when he was living 
in the Deanery (with which there is a communication) 
during the Commonwealth. A piece of timber was long 
shown here as " Bradshaw's rack." The chamber was pro- 
bably once used as a prison : an immense quantity of bones 
of sheep and pigs were found here. In the south-eastern 
triforium is a cast from the leaden cofhn of Prince Henry, 
eldest son of James I. : it is very interesting, as the lead 
was fitted to the features ; the heart, separately encased, 
rested upon the breast. The view from the eastern end of 
the triforium is the most glorious in the whole building : 
here the peculiar tapering bend of the arches (as at Canter- 
bury) may be seen, which is supposed, by poetic monastic 
fancy, to have reference to the bent head of the Saviour 
on the cross. In one of the recesses of the north-eastern 
triforium is ih^Fulpit *' which resounded with the passionate 



36o WALKS IN LONDON, 

appeals, at one time of Baxter, Howe, and Owen, at othei 
times of Heylin, Williams, South, and Barrow." * The 
helmets of the Knights of the Bath, when removed from 
Henry VH.'s Chapel, are preservea here. Farther on are 
two marble reliefs, with medallions of the Saviour and the 
Virgin, supposed to have been intended, but not used, for 
the tomb of Anne of Cleves. At the end of the north- 
western triforium is a curious chest for vestments, in which 
copes could be laid without folding. 

At the end of the southern cloister, on the right, was 
the Abbofs House, now the Deanery. \ The dining-room, 
where Sir J. Reynolds was the frequent guest of Dr. 
Markham, contains several interesting portraits of historic 
deans. Behind the bookcases of the library a secret 
chamber was discovered in 1864, supposed to be that 
in which Abbot William of Colchester, to whose guardian- 
ship three suspected dukes and two earls had been 
intrusted by Henry IV,, plotted with them (1399) for 
the restoration of Richard II. Shakspeare gives the scene. 
It was probably in this secret chamber that Richard 
Fiddes was concealed and supplied with materials for 
writing that " Life of Wolsey " which was intended to vilify 
the Reformation. Here also, perhaps, Francis Atterbury, 
the most eminent of the Westminster deans — the furious 
Jacobite who, on the death of Queen Anne, prepared to go 
in lawn sleeves to proclaim James III. at Charing Cross — 
entered into those plots for which he was sent to the Tower 
and exiled. 

During the Commonwealth the Deanery was leased to 

• Dean Stanley. 

♦ Once called Cheyney Gate Maoor from the chain across the entrance of the 
cloisters. 



JERUSALEM CHAMBER. 361 

John Bradshaw, President of the High Court of Justice. 
He died in the Deanery and was buried in the Abbey. 

On the other side of the picturesque Httle court in front 
of the Deanery is the Abbot's Refectory, now the College 
Hall, where the Westminster scholars dine. Till the time 
of Dean Buckland (1845-56) the hall was only warmed by 
a brazier, of which the smoke escaped through the louvre 
in the roof. The huge tables of chestnut-wood are said to 
have been presented by EHzabeth from the wrecks of the 
Spanish Armada, Here probably it was — in the *' Abbot's 
Place" — that the widowed queen Elizabeth Woodville 
(April, 1485), crossing over from the neighbouring palace, 
took refuge with Abbot Esteney while the greater security 
of the Sanctuary was being prepared for her. Here she 
sate on the niches, " all desolate and dismayed," with her 
long fair hair, which had escaped from its confinement in 
her distress, sweeping upon the ground. 

Through the little court of the Deanery is the approach 
to Jerusalan Chamber, built by Abbot Littlington between 
1376 and 1386 as a guest-chamber for the Abbot's House. 
It probably derived its after-name from tapestry pictures 
of the History of Jerusalem with which it was hung. Here, 
in the ancient chamber where Convocation now holds its 
meetings, Henry IV. died of apoplexy, March 20, 1413, 
thus fulfilling the prophecy that he should die in Jerusalem. 

" In this year, was a great council holden at the White Friars of 
London, by the which it was among other things concluded, that for 
the king's great journey that he intended to take, in visiting of the 
Holy Sepulchre of our Lord, certain galleys of war should be made 
and other perveance concerning the same journey. 

" Whereupon all hasty and possible speed was made ; but after the 
feast of Christmas, while he was making his prayers at St. Edward'^ 
shrine, to take there his leave, and so to speed him on his journey, he 



362 WALKS IN LONDON, 

became so sick, that such as were about him feared that he would 
have died right there ; wherefore they, for his comfort, bare him into 
the abbot's place, and lodged him in a chamber, and there upon a 
pallet laid him before the fire, where he lay in great agony a certain 
time. 

"At length, when he was coming to himself, not knowing where he 
was, he freyned (asked) of such as then were about him, what place 
that was ; the which shewed to him that it belonged unto the abbot of 
Westminster ; and for he felt himself so sick, he commanded to ask if 
that chamber had any special name ; whcreunto it was answered, that 
it was named Jerusalem. Then said the king, • Praise be to the Father 
of Heaven, for now I know I shall die in this chamber, according to 
the prophecy of me beforesaid, that I should die in Jerusalem ;' and so 
after he made himself ready, and died shortly after, upon the day of St. 
Cuthbert." — Fabyan's Chronicle. 

Shakspeare gives the last words of Henry IV, 

King Henry. — " Doth any name particular belong 

Unto the lodging where I first did swoon ? 

Warwick. — " 'Tis call'd Jerusalem, my noble lord. 

King Henry. — " Laud be to God !— even there my life must end. 
It hath been prophesied to me many years, 
I should not die but in Jerusalem ; 
Which vainly I suppos'd the Holy Land : — 
But bear me to that chamber ; there I'U lie ; 
In that Jerusalem shaU Harry die." 

2 Henry IV. Act iv. sc. 4. 

Here Addison (1719) and Congreve (1728) lay in state 
before their burial in the Abbey. 

As the warmth of the chamber drew a king there to die, 
so it attracted the Westminster Assembly, in 1643, perished 
with the cold of sitting in Henry VIL's Chapel, which held 
no less than one thousand five hundred and sixty-three 
sessions, lasting through more than five years and a half, 
" to establish a -new platforme of worship and discipline to 
their nation for all time to come." 

" Out of these walls came the Directory, the Longer and Shorter 
Catechism, and that famous Confession of Faith which, alone within 



i 



DEAN'S YARD, 



l^Z 



these Islands, was imposed by law on the whole kingdom ; and which, 
alone of all Protestant Confessions, still, in spite of its sternness and 
narrowness, retains a hold on the minds of its adherents to which its 
fervour and its logical coherence in some measure entitle it." — Dean 

Stanley. 

The chief existing decorations of this beautiful old 
chamber are probably due to Dean Wihiams in the time of 
James L, but the painted glass is more ancient. The 



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Jerusalem Chamber. 



panelling is of cedar- wood. The tapestry is mostly of the 
time of Henry VIII. Over the chimney-piece is a picture 
of the death of Henry IV. 

From the Deanery a low archway leads into Deaii's Yard, 
once called " The Elms/' from its grove of trees. The 
eastern side was formerly occupied by the houses of the 
Prior, Sub-Prior, and other officers of the Convent, which 
still in part remain as houses of the Canons. The 



364 WALKS IN LONDON. 

buildings nearest the archway were known in monastic 
times as **' the Calberge." In front of these, till the year 
1758, stretched the long detached building of the convent 
Grafiary, which was used as the dormitory of Westminster 
School till the present Dormitory on the western side of 
the College Garden was built by Dean Atterbury. 

In the green space in the centre of the yard an exhibition 
of *' the results of Window Gardening " takes place every 
summer, exceedingly popular with the poorer inhabitants of 
Westminster, and often productive of much innocent plea- 
sure tiirough the rest of the year. 

On the east is a beautiful vaulted passage and picturesque 
gate of Abbot LittUngton's time, leading to the groined 
entrance oi Little Dean's Yard. The tower above the gate is 
probably that which is known as '* the Blackstole Tower." 
On the other side of the yard is a classic gateway, the 
design of which is attributed to Inigo Jones, now covered 
with names of scholars, which forms the entrance to 
Westminster School^ originally founded by Henry VIII., and 
richly endowed by Queen Elizabeth in 1560. The School- 
room can be best visited between 2 and 3 p.m. It was the 
dormitory of the monastery, and is ninety-six feet long and 
thirty-four broad. At the south-western extrernity two 
round arches of the Confessor's time remain, with the door 
which led by a staircase to the cloisters. On the opposite 
side is another arched window, and a door which led to 
Abbot LittUngton's Tower. 

In its present form the Schoolroom is a noble and 
venerable chamber. The timber roof is of oak, not chest- 
nut as generally represented. The upper part of the 
walls and the recesses of the windows are covered with 



WESTMINSTER SCHOOL, 365 

names of scholars. Formerly the benches followed the 
lines of the walls as in the old " Fourth Form Room " 
at Harrow ; the present horseshoe arrangement of benches 
was introduced from the Charter House by Dean Liddell 
(who had been a Charter House boy) when he was 
head-master. The half circle marked in the floor of the 
dais recalls the semicircular form of the end of the 
room, which existed till 1868, and which gave the name 
of " shell " (^adopted by several other public schools) to the 
class which occupied that position. The old " shell-forms," 
the most venerable of the many ancient benches here, 
hacked and carved with names till scarce any of the original 
surface remains, are preserved in a small class-room on the 
left. In a similar room on the right is a form which bears 
the name of Dryden, cut in narrow capital letters. The 
school-hours are from eight to nine, ten to half-past twelve, 
and half-past three to five. 

High up, across the middle of the Schoolroom, an iron 
bar divides the Upper and Lower Schools. Over this bar, 
by an ancient custom, the college cook or her deputy 
tosses a stiffly-made Pancake on Shrove Tuesday. The 
boys, on the other side of the bar, struggle to catch it, 
and if any boy can not only catch it but convey it away 
intact from all competitors to the head-master's house (a 
difficult feat) he can claim a guinea. In former days a 
curtain, hanging from this bar, separated the schools. 

" Every one, who is acquainted with Westminster-school, knows that 
there is a curtain which used to be drawn across the room, to separate 
the upper school from the lower. A youth ("Wake, father of Arch- 
bishop Wake) happened, by some mischance, to tear the above-men- 
tioned curtain. The severity of the master (Dr. Busby) was too well 
known for the criminal to expect any pardon for such a fault ; so that 



366 WALKS IN LONDON. 

the boy, who was of a meek temper, was terrified to death at the 
thoughts of his appearance, when his friend who sate next to him bade 
him be of good cheer, for that he would take the fault on himself. He 
kept his word accordingly. As soon as they were grown up to be 
men, the civil war broke out, in which our two friends took the oppo- 
site sides ; one of them followed the parliament, the other the royal 
party. 

" As their tempers were dijBferent, the youth who had torn the 
curtain endeavoured to raise himself on the civil list, and the other, 
who had borne the blame of it, on the military. The first succeeded 
so well that he was in a short time made a judge under the protector. 
The other was engaged in the unhappy enterprise of Penruddock and 
Groves in the West. Every one knows that the royal party was 
routed, and all the heads of them, among whom was the curtain 
champion, imprisoned at Exeter. It happened to be his friend's lot at 
that time to go the western circuit. The trial of the rebels, as they 
were then called, was very short, and nothing now remained but to 
pass sentence on them ; when the judge hearing the name of his old 
friend, and observing his face more attentively, asked him if he was 
not formerly a Westminster scholar ? By the answer, he was soon 
convinced that it was his former generous friend ; and without saying 
anything more at that time, made the best of his way to London, 
where employing all his power and interest with the protector, he 
saved his friend from the fate of his unhappy associates." — Spectator^ 
No. 313. 

There is a bust of Dr. Busby in the School Library which 
adjoins the schoolroom ; and a bust of Sir Francis Burdett, 
given by the Baroness Burdett Coutts, with a reHef repre- 
senting his leaving the Traitors' Gate of the Tower on the 
pedestal. There are about two hundred and forty boys at 
Westminster School, but of these only forty are on the 
foundation ; they sleep in (partitions of the) Dormitory 
which was built along one side of the College Garden in 
1722 from designs of Boyle, Earl of Burlington. In thi 
Dormitory the " Westminster Plays " — Latin Plays of 
Phutus or Terence superseding the Catholic Mysteries — 
are acted by the boys on the second Thursday in December, 



ASHBURNHAM HOUSE. 367 

and the preceding and following Monday. The scenery 
was designed by Garrick : since 1839 the actors have worn 
Greek costume. 

The most eminent Masters of Westminster have been 
Camden and Dr. Busby. Among Foundation Scholars 
have been Bishop Overall, translator of the Bible ; Hak- 
luyt (Canon of Westminster), the collector of voyages ; 
the poets Herbert, Cowley (who published a volume of 
poems while he was at school here), Dryden, Prior, Stepney, 
Rowe, Churchill, and " Vinny Bourne"; South the preacher; 
Locke the philosopher; Bishops Atterbury, Sprat, and 
Pearce; and Warren Hastings, Governor of Bengal. 
Scholars f not on the foundation, include — Lord Burghley; 
Ben Jonson ; Sir Christopher Wren ; Barton Booth the 
actor; Blackmore, Browne, Dyer, Hammond, Aaron Hill, 
Cowper, and Southey, poets ; Home Tooke; Cumberland 
the dramatist ; Montagu, Earl of Halifax ; Gibbon the his- 
torian ; Murray, Earl of Mansfield ; Sir Francis Burdett ; 
Earl Russell ; Archbishop Longley ; and Bishop Cotton. 

On the north of Little Dean's Yard, occupying the site 
of part of the monastic building known as "the Misericorde," 
is Ashburnham House (now the residence of the Sub-Dean), 
built by Inigo Jones, which derives its name from having 
been the residence of Lord Ashburnham in 1708. Here 
the Cottonian Library of MSS. was kept from 17 12 to 
1 73 1, when part of the house was destroyed by fire, and 
Dr. Freind saw Dr. Bentley, the King's Librarian, in his 
dressing-gown and flowing wig, carrying oflf the Alexandrian 
MS. of the New Testament under his arm. The house 
has a broad noble staircase, widi a quaint circular gallery 
above and the ceiling and decorations of the drawing- 



368 WALKS IN LONDON. 

room are beautiful specimens of Inigo Jones's work ; a 
small temple-summer-house in the garden is also, but with- 
out much probability, attributed to him. Dean Milman 
resided in this house as Canon of Westminster. 

The precincts of the Monastery extended far beyond those 
of the College and were entered (where the Royal Aqua- 
rium now stands) by a double Gatehouse of the time of 
Edward III., which served also as a gaol. One of its 
chambers was used as an ecclesiastical prison, the other was 
the common prison of Westminster, the prisoners being 
brought by way of Thieving Lane and Union Street, to pre- 
vent their escaping by entering the liberties of sanctuary. 
Nicholas Vaux died here of cold and starvation in 157 1, a 
martyr in the cause of Roman Catholicism, Hence Lady 
Purbeck, imprisoned for adultery in 1622, escaped to 
France in a man's dress. It was here that Sir Walter 
Raleigh passed the night before his execution and wrote 
on the blank leaf of his Bible the lines — 

" Ev'n such is Time, that takes on trust 

' Our youth, our joys, our all we have, 

And pays us but with age and dust, 
Who in the dark and silent grave. 
When we have wander'd all our ways, 
Shuts up the story of our days. 

But from this earth, this grave, this dust, 

The Lord shall raise me up I trust." 

Here Richard Lovelace, imprisoned for his devotion to 
Charles I., wrote — 

" Stone walls doe not a prison make 
Nor iron barres a cage ; 
Minds innocent and quiet take 
That for a hermitage. 



THE SANCTUARY, 369 

If I have freedom in my love. 

And in my soule am free, 
Angels alone that soar above 

Enjoy such Ubertie." 

Hampden, Sir John Eliot, and Lilly the astrologer were 
also imprisoned at different times in the Gatehouse. The 
dwarf, Sir Jeffry Hudson, died here, being accused of having 
a share in the Popish Plot. Being eighteen inches high, he 
was first brought into notice at court by being served up in a 
cold pie at Burleigh to Henrietta Maria, who took him into 
her service.* Here Savage the poet lay under condemna- 
tion of death for the murder of Mr. Sinclair during a riot in 
a public-house at Charing Cross.! Here Captain Bell was 
imprisoned for ten years by an order of Privy Council, 
but, as he believed, in order to give him time for the transla- 
tion of Luther's Table Talk, to which he had been bidden 
by a supernatural visitant. J The Gatehouse was pulled 
down in 1776 in consequence of the absurdity of Dr. John- 
son, who declared that it was a disgrace to the present 
magnificence of the capital, and a continual nuisance to 
neighbours and passengers. One arch remained till 1839, 
walled up in a house which had once been inhabited by 
Edmund Burke. 

Within the Gatehouse, on the left, where the Westmm- 
ster Hospital now stands, stood " the Sanctuary " — a strong 
square Norman tower, containing two cruciform chapels, 
one above the other. Here hung the bells of the Sanctuary, 
which, it was said, "sowered all the drink in the town." 
The privilege of giving protection from arrest to criminals 

• He was painted by Vandyck, and is described by Scott in " Peveril of the 
Peak." 
+ Johnson's " Life of Savage." 
X See Southey's " Doctor," vii. 354. 

VOL. II. E B 



37© WALKS IN LONDON. 

and debtors was shared by many of the great English 
monasteries, but few had greater opportunities of extending 
their shelter than Westminster, just on the outskirts of the 
capital : " Thieving Lane " preserved its evil memory even 
to our own time. 

The family of Edward IV. twice sought a refuge here, 
once in 1470, when the Queen, Elizabeth Woodville, with 
he- mother, and her three daughters Elizabeth, Mary, and 
Cicely, were here as the guests of Abbot Milling, till her 
son Edward was born on Nov. i, 1470 — "commonly called 
Edward V., though his hand was asked but never married 
to the English crown." * The Abbot, the Duchess of Bed- 
ford, and Lady Scrope stood sponsors to the prince in the 
Sanctuary chapel. The second time was in 1483, after the 
khig's death, when the queen fled hither from the Duke of 
Gloucester with all her daughters, her brother Dorset, 
and her younger son Richard. Here, sorely against her 
will, she was persuaded by the Archbishop of Canterbury 
to give up her son. 

*♦ And therewithal she said unto the child, * Farewell, my own sweet 
son, God send you good keeping, let me kiss you once yet ere you go, 
for God knoweth when we shall kiss together again,' and therewith 
she kissed him and blessed him, and turned her back and went 
her way, leaving the child weeping as fast." — Sir T. Mare's Life of 
Richard III. 

Here, while still in sanctuary, the unhappy mother heard 
of the murder of her two sons in the Tower. 

" It struck to her heart like the dart of death ; she was so suddenly 
amazed that she swooned and fell to the ground, and lay there in great 
agony like to a dead corpse. And after she was revived, and came to 
her memory again, she wept and sobbed, and with pitifiil screeches 

» Fuller's " Worthies." 



I 



THE ALMONRY. 371 

filled the whole mansion. Her breast she beat, her fair hair she tore 
and pulled in pieces, and calling by name her sweet babes, accounted her- 
self mad when she delivered her younger son out of sanctuary for his 
uncle to put him to death. After long lamentation, she kneeled down 
and cried to God to take vengeance, * who ' she said, * she nothing 
doubted would remember it.' " 

Skelton, the Poet Laureate of Henry VII., who wrote the 
lament for Edward IV. — 

" Oh Lady Bessee ! long for me may ye call, 
For I am departed till domesday " — 

fled hither to sanctuary from Cardinal Wolsey in the time of 
Henry VIII., and remained here till his death, not all the 
Cardinal's influence having power to dislodge him. After 
the fall of the Abbey criminals were deprived of the rights 
of sanctuary, but they were retained for debtors till the 
time of James I. (1602), when they were finally abolished. 

Within the precincts, to the right on passing the Gate- 
house (where the Westminster Palace Hotel now stands), 
was the Almonry^ possessing an endowment for male 
pensioners from Henry VII., and for females from his 
mother, the Countess of Richmond. Two chapels were 
connected with it, one of which was commemorated in the 
name of St. Annis Lane. It was in the Almonry that Wil- 
liam Caxton's printing-press was established. He had pre- 
viously worked in Cologne, and it is supposed that he came 
to England in 1474, when " The Game and Play of Chess " 
was produced, which is generally supposed to have been his 
first work printed in this country. Gower's " Confessio 
Amantis " and Chaucer's different poems were printed here 
by Caxton. 

We have still left one interesting point unvisited which 



372 WALKS IN LONDON. 

is connected with the Abbey. Beyond the Infirmary Gar- 
den were the cell of the Hermit, who, by ancient custom, 
was attached to the Abbey, and the ancient tower which 
formerly served as the Kin^s Jewel House. The latter 
remains. Its massive rugged walls and narrow Norman 
windows are best seen from the mews in College Street, 
entered by the gateway on the south of Dean's Yard. But 
to visit the interior it is necessary to ask admission at 6, 
Old Palace Yard. The tower has been generally described 
as a building of Richard II., but it was more probably only 
bought by him, and it is most likely that it was one of the 
earliest portions of the Abbey, and contained the primi- 
tive Refectory and Dormitory used by the monks during the 
building of the principal edifice by the Confessor. A layer 
of Roman tiles has been discovered in the building. 

The interior was evidently refitted by Abbot Littlington, 
and the exceedingly beautiful vaulted room on the base- 
ment story is of his time. The bosses of the roof are curious, 
especially one with a face on every side. A small vaulted 
room opens out of the larger chamber. The upper chamber 
of the tower, which has its noble original chestnut roof, is 
now a small historical museum. Here are some of the old 
Standards of weights and measures — those of Henry VII. 
being especially curious ; the old Exchequer Tallies ; Queen 
EHzabeth's Standard Ell and Yard, &c. Here also are 
the six horseshoes and sixty-one nails which, by ancient 
custom, the sheriffs of London are compelled to count 
when they are sworn in. In the time of Edward II., when 
this custom was established, it was a proof of education, 
as only well-instructed men could count up to sixty-one. 
At the same time it was ordained that the sheriff, in proof 



THE KING'S JEWEL HOUSE, 373 

of strength, should cut a bundle of sticks : this custom (the 
abolition of which has been vainly attempted) still exists, 
but a bundle of matches (!) is now provided. The original 
knife always has to be used. 

There is a noble view of the Abbey from the plat- 
form on the top of the Tower. It will scarcely be 
credited by those who visit it, that the destruction of 
this interesting building is in contemplation, and that 
the present century, for the sake of making a "regular" 
street, will perhaps bear the stigma of having destroyed 
one of the most precious buildings in Westminster, 
which, if the houses around it were cleared away (and 
it were preserved as a museum of Westminster antiquities), 
would be the greatest possible addition to the group of 
historic buildings to which it belongs. 



CHAPTER Vin. 

WESTMINSTER. 

IMMEDIATELY facing us as we emerge from Parlia- 
ment Street is New Palace Yard, backed by Westminster 
Hall and the New Houses of Parliament. They occupy the 
site of the palace inhabited by the ancient sovereigns of Eng- 
land from early Anglo-Saxon times till Henry VHI. went to 
reside at Whitehall. Here they lived in security under the 
shadow of the great neighbouring sanctuary, and one after 
another saw arise, within the walls of their Palace, those 
Houses of Parliament which have now swallowed up the 
whole. It was here that Edward the Confessor entertained 
the Norman cousin who was to succeed him, and here he 
died on the 14th of January, 1066. The palace was fre- 
quently enlarged and beautified afterwards, especially by 
William Rufus, Avho built the hall ; by Stephen, who built 
the chapel, to which the finishing touches were given by 
Edward III. ; and by Henry VIII., who built the Star 
Chamber. Edward I. was born, and Edward IV. died, 
within the walls of the palace. The most interesting parts 
of the ancient building were St. Stephen's Chapel, the 
Painted Chamber, and the Star Chamber. 

St. Stephen's Chapel was a beautiful specimen of rich 



I 



WESTMINSTER PALACE, 375 

Decorated Gothic, its inner walls being covered with 
ancient frescoes relating to the Old and New Testament 
history; it was used as the House of Commons from 1547 
till 1834, and its walls resounded to the eloquence of 
Chatham, Pitt, Fox, Burke, Grattan, and Canning. 

The walls of the Painted Chamber were pointed out by 
tradition as those of the bedroom where the Confessor 
died. It was first called St. Edward's Chamber, and took 
its second name from the frescoes (arranged round the walls 
in bands like the Bayeux tapestry) with which it was 
adorned by Henry III., and which were chiefly illustrative 
of the History of the Maccabees and the Legendary life of 
the Confessor.* Here conferences between the Lords and 
Commons took place ; here the High Court of Justice sate 
for the trial of Charles I. ; and here the king's death- 
warrant was signed in the disgraceful scene when Cromwell 
and Henry Marten inked each other's faces. It was here 
also that Cromwell's daughter Elizabeth Claypole lay in 
state, and, long afterwards, Lord Chatham and WiUiam 
Pitt. 

The Star Chamber, which was rebuilt by Henry VIII., 
took its name from the gilt stars upon its ceiling. It was the 
terrible Court in which the functions of Prosecutor and 
Judge were confounded, and where every punishment 
except death could be inflicted — imprisonment, pillory, 
branding, whipping, &c. It was there that William, Bishop 
of Lincoln, was fined ;^5,ooo for calHng Laud " the great 
Leviathan," and that John Lilburn, after being fined 
;£5,ooo, was sentenced to the pillory, and to be whipped 
from Fleet Street to Westminster. On the south side of the 

• They are engraved in J.,T. Smith's " Vetusta Monumeota," 



3;6 WALKS IN LONDON. 

palace was the Chapel of Our Lady de la Pieu (des Puits ?) 
where Richard II. offered to the Virgin before going to 
meet Wat Tyler. It was burnt in 1452, but rebuilt by the 
brother of Elizabeth Woodville, Anthony, Earl Rivers, who 
left his heart to be buried there. 

At the end of the old Palace, opening upon Old Palace 
Yard, was the Prince's Chamber, built upon foundations of 
the Confessor's time, with walls seven feet thick. The 
upper part had lancet windows of the time of Henry III., and 
beneath them the quaintest of tapestry represented the birth 
of Elizabeth. Beyond was the ancient Court of Requests, 
hung with very curious tapestry representing the defeat of 
the Armada, woven at Haarlem, from designs of Cornelius 
Vroom for Lord Howard of Effingham. This was the House 
of Lords till 1834. Its interior is shown in Copley's Picture 
of the " Death of Lord Chatham," who was attacked by his 
last illness (April 7, 1779) while declaiming against the dis- 
grace of the proposed motion " for recognising the inde- 
pendence of the North American colonies." Beneath was 
the cellar where Guy Fawkes concealed (Nov. 5, 1605) the 
barrels of gunpowder by which the king, queen, and peers 
were to be blown up. Hither, on the day before the 
opening of Parliament, Lady Aveland, as Hereditary Lord 
High Chamberlain, comes annually, by her deputy, with 
torches, to hunt for the successors of Guy Fawkes. On the 
night of October 16, 1834, occurred the great conflagra- 
tion which was painted by Turner, and the ancient Palace 
of Westminster, with St. Stephen's Chapel, and the old 
House of Lords were entirely gutted by fire.* 

• The fire began in the rooms adjacent to the House of Lords, amid the piles ot 
tallies which were preserved there — pieces of stick upon which the primitive 
accounts of the House were kept by notches. 



< 



WESTMINSTER PALACE, 377 

The New Palace of Westmi7isier, containing the Houses 
of Parliament^ yN2L% built 1840 — 1859, from designs of Sir 
Charles Barry, R.A., in the Tudor style of Henry VIII. It 
is twice the size of the old palace, and is one of the largest 
Gothic buildings in the world. The exterior is constructed 
of magnesian lime-stone from the Yorkshire quarries of 
Anston ; the interior is of Caen stone. The details of 
many of the Belgian town halls are introduced in the 
exterior, which is, however, so wanting in bold lines and 
characteristic features that no one would think of com- 
paring it for beauty with the halls of Brussels, Ypres, or 
Louvain, though its towers group well at a distance, and 
especially from the river. Of these towers it has three — the 
Central Tower over the octagon hall ; the Clock Tower (320 
feet high, occupying nearly the same site as the ancient 
clock-tower of Edward I., where the ancient Great Tom 
of Westminster for 400 years sounded the hours to the 
judges of England) ; * and the Victoria Tower (75 feet 
square, and T^T^d feet high), being the gateway by 
which the Queen is intended to approach the House of 
Lords. Over the arch of the gate is the statue of Queen 
Victoria, supported by figures of Justice and Mercy ; at the 
sicjes her parents, tlie Duke and Duchess of Kent, are com- 
memorated, and other members of her family. The statues 
of the kings and queens of England from Saxon times are 
the principal external ornaments of the rest of the building. 

• It was this clock which once struck thirteen at midnight with the effect of 
saving a man's life. John Hatfield, guard on the terrace at Windsor in the reign 
of William and Mary, being accused of having fallen asleep at Ins post, and tried 
by court-martial, solemnly denied the charge, declaring as proof of his being 
awake, that he heard Great Tom strike thirteen, which was doubted on account 
of the great distance. But while he was under sentence of death, an affidavit was 
made by several persons that the clock actually did strike thirteen instead of 
twelve, whereupon be received the king's pardoa. 



378 WALKS IN LONDON. 

New Palace Yard was formerly entered by four gateways, 
the finest being the " High Gate " on the west, built by 
Richard II., and only destroyed under Anne. On the left, 
where the Star Chamber stood, is - now the House of the 
Speaker, an office which dates from the reign of Edward 
in. : the first Speaker being Sir W. T. Hungerford, elected 
1377. On its south side, Westminster Hall faces us with 
its great door and window between two square towers, and 
above, the high gable of the roof, upon which the heads of 
Oliver Cromwell, Ireton, and Bradshaw were set up on 
the Restoration. The head of Cromwell still exists in the 
possession of Mr. Horace Wilkinson, Sevenoaks, Kent. 

On Westminster Hall 

" Ireton's head was in the middle, and Cromwell's and Bradshaw's 
on either side. Cromwell's head, being embalmed, remained exposed 
to the atmosphere for twenty-five years, and then one stormy night it 
was blown down, and picked up by the sentry, who, hiding it under 
his cloak, took it home and secreted it in the chimney-corner, and, as 
enquiries were constantly being made about it by the Government, it 
was only on his deathbed that he revealed where he had hidden it. 
His family sold the head to one of the Cambridgeshii-e Russells, and, 
in the same box in which it still is, it descended to a certain Samuel 
Russell, who, being a needy and careless man, exhibited it in a place 
near Clare Market. There it was seen by James Cox, who then owned 
a famous museum. He tried in vain to buy the head from Russell ; 
for, poor as he was, nothing would at first tempt him to part with the 
relic, but after a time Cox assisted him with money, and eventually, to 
clear himself from debt, he made the head over to Cox. When Cox 
at last parted with his museum, he sold the head of Cromwell for ;^230 
to three men, who bought it about the time of the French Revolution 
to exhibit in Mead Court, Bond Street, at half a crown a head. 
Curiously enough, it happened that each of these three gentlemen died 
a sudden death, and the head came into the possession of the tliree 
nieces of the last man who died. These young ladies, nervous at 
keeping it in the house, asked Mr. Wilkinson, their medical man, to 
take care of it for them, and they subsequently sold it to him. For 
the next fifteen or twenty years Mr. Wilkinson was in the habit of 



NEW PALACE YARD. 379 

showing it to all the distinguished men of that day, and the head, 
much treasured, remains in the family. 

• " The circumstantial evidence is very curious. It is the only head 
in history which is known to have been embalmed and afterwards 
beheaded. On the back of the neck, above the vertebrae, is the mark 
of the cut of an axe where the executioner, having, perhaps, no proper 
block, had struck too high, and, laying the head in its soft embalmed 
state on the block, flattened the nose on one side, making it adhere 
to the face. The hair grows promiscuously about the face, and the 
beard, stained to exactly the same colour by the embalming liquor, is 
tucked up under the chin with the oaken staff of the spear with which 
the head was stuck upon Westminster Hall, which staff is perforated 
by % worm that never attacks oak until it has been for many years 
exposed to the weather. The iron spear-head, where it protrudes 
above the skuU, is rusted away by the action of the atmosphere. The 
jagged way in which the top of the skull is removed throws us back 
to a time when surgery was in its infancy, while the embalming is so 
beautifully done that the cellular process of the gums and the mem- 
brane of the tongue are still to be seen." — Letter signed '■'■ Senex^"" 
Times, Dec. 31, 1874. 

It was in the yard in front of Westminster Hall that 
Edward I. (1297), when leaving for Flanders, publicly 
recommended his son Edward to the love of his people. 
Here Perkin Warbeck (1497) was set a whole day in the 
stocks. On the same spot Thomas Lovelace (1587) was 
pilloried by an order from the Star Chamber, and had one 
of his ears cut off. Here (1630) Alexander Leighton (the 
father of the archbishop) was not only pilloried, but publicly 
whipped, for a libel on the queen and the bishops. Here 
also William Prynne (1636), for writing the " Histrio- 
Mastrix," which was supposed to reflect upon Henrietta 
Maria, was put in the pillory, branded on both cheeks with 
the letters S. L. (seditious libeller), and lost one of his 
ears. And here the Duke of Hamilton, Lord Capel, and 
Henry Rich, Earl of Holland, were beheaded for the cause 
of Charles L The wool market established by Edward HI. 



38o WALKS IN LONDON. 

in 1353, when the wearing of woollen cloths was first in- 
troduced into England by John Kempe, was moved by 
Richard II. from Staple Inn to New Palace Yard, where a 
portion of the trade was still carried on in the fifteenth 
century. For many years, before the porch where we are 
standing, daily, in term time, used to be seen the mule of 
Cardinal Wolsey (who rode hither from York Place), " being 
trapped all in crimson velvet, with a saddle of the same 
stufFe and gilt stirrupts." 

Westi?iinster Hally first built by William Rufus, was 
almost rebuilt by Richard II., who added the noble roof 
of cobwebless beams of Irish oak " in which spiders cannot 
live," which we now see. On the frieze beneath the Gothic 
windows his badge, the White Hart couchant, is repeated 
over and over again. The Hall, which is 270 feet long 
and 74 feet broad, forms a glorious vestibule to the 
modern Houses of Parliament, and its southern extremity 
with the fine staircase was added when they were built. 
In its long existence the Hall has witnessed more tragic 
scenes than any building in England except the 
Tower of London. Sir William Wallace was condemned 
to death here in 1305, and Sir John Oldcastle the 
Wickliffite in 1417. In 1517 three queens — Katherine 
of Arragon, Margaret of Scotland, and Mary of France 
— "long upon their knees," here "begged pardon of 
Henry VIII. for the 480 men and eleven women accused 
of being concerned in * the Rising of the Prentices,' 
and obtained their forgiveness." Edward Stafford, Duke 
of Buckingham, was tried here and condemned in 1522, 
and, on hearing his sentence, pronounced the touching 
speei:h which is familiar to thousands in the words of 



WESTMINSTER HALL, 381 

Shakspeare.* Here, May 7, 1535, Sir Thomas More was 
condemned to death, when his son, breaking through the 
guards and flinging himself on his breast, implored to share 
his fate. Here Fisher, Bishop of Rochester (1535); the Pro- 
tector Somerset (155 1) ; Sir Thomas Wyatt (1554) ; Thomas 
Howard, Duke of Norfolk (for the sake of Mary of Scot- 
land, 1571); Philip, Earl of Arundel (1589); Robert 
Devereux, Earl of Essex, and Henry Wriothesley, Earl of 
Southampton (1600) were condemned to the block. Here 
sentence was passed upon the Conspirators of the Gunpowder 
Plot in 1606, and on the Duke and Duchess of Somerset 
for the murder of Sir Thomas Overbury in 16 16. Here, 
concealed behind the tapestry of a dark cabinet (1640), 
Charles I. and Henrietta Maria were present through the 
eighteen days' trial of Thomas Went worth. Earl of Strafford. 
In the same place Charles himself appeared as a prisoner 
on Jan. 20, 1649, with the banners taken at the Battle of 
Naseby hanging over his head.f 

" Bradshaw, in a scarlet robe, and covered by his * broad -brimmed 
hat,' placed himself in a crimson velvet chair in the centre of the 
court, with a desk and velvet cushion before him ; Say and Lisle on 
each side of him ; and the two clerks of the court sitting below him at 
a table, covered with rich Turkey carpet, on which were laid the sword 
of state and the mace. The rest of the court, with their hats on, took 

their seats on side benches, hung with scarlet During the 

reading of the charge the King sat entirely unmoved in his chair, 
looking sometimes to the court and sometimes to the galleries. Occa- 
sionally he rose up and turned about to behold the guards and spec- 
tators, and then sat down again, but with a majestical composed 
countenance, unruffled by the slightest emotion, till the clerk came to 
the words Charles Stuart, as a tyrant, traitor, murderer, ^c. ; at 
which the King laughed, as he sat, in the face of the court. The 
silver head of his staff happened to fall o£F, at which he appeared 

• Henty VIII. Act ii. sc. i. 

+ "Westminster Hall," by Edward Foss. 



382 WALKS IN LONDON. 

surprised ; Herbert, who stood near him, offered to pick it up, but 
Charles, seeing he could not reach it, stooped for it himself. When 
the words were read stating the charge to be exhibited ' on behalf of 
the people of England,' a voice, in a loud tone, called out, * No, nor 
the half of the people — it is false — where are they or their consents ? — 
OUver Cromwell is a traitor.' This occasioned a confusion in the 
court ; Colonel Axtell even commanded the soldiers to fire into the 
box from which the voice proceeded. But it was soon discovered that 
these words, as well as a former exclamation on calling Fairfax's name, 
were uttered by Lady Fairfax, the General's wife, who was immediately 
compelled by the guard to withdraw." — Trial of Charles /., Family 
Library, xxxi. 

The sentence against the King was pronounced on the 
27 th of January : — 

" The King, who during the reading of the sentence had smiled, and 
more than once lifted his eyes to heaven, then said, * Will you hear 
me a word. Sir ? ' 

" Bradshaw. Sir, you are not to be heard after the sentence. 

" 2he King. No, Sir ? 

^* Bradshaw. No, Sir, by your favour. Guards, withdraw your 
prisoner. 

" The King. I may speak after the sentence, by your favour, Sir. 
I may speak after the sentence, ever. By your favour 

*' Bradshaw. Hold! 

" The King. The sentence, Sir. I say. Sir, I do 

^* Bradshaw. Hold! 

" The King. I am not suffered to speak. Expect what justice other 
people will have.^* — Trial of Charles I. 

In 1640 Viscount Stafford was condemned in Westminster 
Hall for alleged participation in the Roman Catholic plot 
of Titus Oates. On June 15, 1688, the Hall witnessed the 
memorable scene which ended in the triumphant acquittal 
of the Seven Bishops. In 1699 Edward, Earl of Warwick, 
was tried here for manslaughter. Lords Kenmure and 
Derwentwater, Carnwath and Nithsdale, Widdrington and 
Nairn were condemned here for rebeUion in 17 16, and 



WESTMINSTER HALL, 383 

Cromartie, Balmerino, and Kilmarnock in 1746, their trial 
being followed eight months later by that of the aged Lord 
Lovat. In 1760 Lawrence Shirley, Earl Ferrers, was con- 
demned here to be hung for the murder of his servant. In 
1765 Lord Byron was tried here for the murder of Mr. 
Chaworth; and in 1776 Elizabeth Chudleigh, Duchess of 
Kingston, was tried here for bigamy. The last great trial 
in the Hall was that of Warren Hastings (in 1788), so 
eloquently described by Macaulay. 

But Westminster Hall has other associations besides 
those of its great Trials. It was here that Henry III. saw 
the Archbishop and bishops hurl their lighted torches upon 
the ground, and call down terrific anathemas upon those 
who should break the charter he had sworn to observe. 
Here Edward III. received the Black Prince when he re- 
turned to England with King John of France as a prisoner 
after the Battle of Poitiers. Hither came the English 
barons with the Duke of Gloucester to denounce Robert de 
Vere, Duke of Ireland, to Richard II. ; and here, when 
Richard abdicated, Henry Bolingbroke claimed the realm 
of England as descended by right line of blood from 
Henry IIL* 

Westminster Hall was the scene of all the Corona- 
tion banquets from the time of William Rufus to that of 
George IV. On these occasions, ever since the reign of 
Richard II., the gates have been suddenly flung open, and, 
amid a blare of trumpets, the Royal Champion (always a 
Dymok or Dymoke of Scrivelsby) rides into the hall in 
full armour, and, hurling his mailed gauntlet upon the 

* Sliakspeare in his Richard II, makes the King pronounce his abdication at 
:;his scene. 



384 WALKS IN LONDON. 

ground, defies to single combat any person who shall gain- 
say the rights of the sovereign. This ceremony having 
been thrice repeated as the champion advances up the hall^ 
the sovereign pledges him in a silver cup, which he after- 
wards sends to him. 
On ordinary days — 

** 1 he great Hall of Westminster, the field 
Where mutual frauds are fought, and no side yield,"* 

is almost given up to the Lawyers. Nothing in England 
astonished Peter the Great more than the number of lawyers 
he saw here. " Why," he said, " I have only two lawyers 
in all my dominions, and I mean to hang one of those 
when I get home." 

The Law Courts, of which Sir E. Coke says, "No man 
can tell which is the most ancient," have occupied buildings, 
from the designs of Sir John Soane, on the west side of the 
Hall, but will be removed when the New Law Courts at 
Temple Bar are completed. They are the Court of Queen's 
Bench, presided over by the Lord Chief Justice and used 
by the Masters in Chancery, so called from the cancelli, open 
screens, which separated it from the Hall, the Court of 
Wards and Liveries, the Court of Requests, the. Bail Court, 
and the Court of Common Pleas, presided over by the 
Chief Justice, where the great Tichborne case was tried 
1871-72. Up to the reign of Mary L the Judges rode 
to the Courts of Westminster upon mules. Men used to 
walk about in the Hall to seek employment as hired wit- 
nesses, and shamelessly drew attention to their calling by a 
straw in their shoes. In the time when Sir Thomas More 

* Ben lonson. 



ST, STEPHEN'S CRYPT. 385 

was presiding in the Court of Chancery, his father, Sir John 
More, was sitting in the Court of King's Bench, and daily, 
before commencing his duties, he used to cross the Hall, to 
ask his father's blessing. The Exchequer Court at West- 
minster was formerly divided by the Hall, the pleading 
part being on one side, iki^ paying part on the other. 

** The proverb — ' As sure as Exchequer pay ' — was in the prime 
thereof in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, who maintained her Ex- 
chequer to the height, that her Exchequer might maintain her. The 
pay was sure inwards, nothing being remitted which was due there 
to the queen ; and sure outwards, nothing being detained which was 
due thence from the queen, full and speedy payment being made thereof. 
This proverb began to be crost about the end of the reign of King 
James, when the credit of the Exchequer began to decay ; and no 
wonder if the streams issuing thence were shallow, when the fountain 
to feed them was so low, the revenues of the crown being much 
abated." — Fuller's Worthies. 

(The Interior of the Houses of Parliament is shown on Saturdays 
from ten to four by an order which can be obtained at the Lord Cham- 
berlain's office in the Royal Court on the south side of the building. 

Strangers may be present to hear debates in the House of Lords by 
a Peer's order, or in the House of Commons by an order from any 
member or the Speaker. Each member can give one order daily.) 

The Hall of William Rufus is now merged in the huge 
palace of Barry. A door on the east side of the Hall forms 
the Members' approach to the House of Commons. It leads 
into the fan-roofed galleries which represent the restored 
cloisters of 1350. A beautiful little oratory projects into 
the courtyard and the enclosure. Here it is believed that 
several of the signatures were affixed to the death-warrant 
of Charles I. The ancient door of the oratory has only 
recently been removed. Hence we enter the original 
Crypt of St. Stephen's Chapel (" St. Mary's Chapel in the 
Vaults"), which dates from 1292, and has escaped the two 

VOL. II. C C 



386 WALKS IN LONDON. 

fires which have since consumed the chapel above. While 
it was being restored as the Chapel of the House of Com- 
mons, an embalmed body of a priest holding a pastoral 
staff was found. It was supposed to be that of William 
Lyndwoode, Bishop of St. David's (1646), who founded a 
chantry here. The chapel is now gorgeous and gaudy, gilt 
and painted, a blaze of modern glass and polished glazed 
tiles. 

The staircase at the south end of Westminster Hall leads 
to St. Stephen's Ball (95 ft. by 30, and 56 high), which 
occupies the site of the old House of Commons. It is 
decorated with statues : 

Burke by Theed. 
Grattan — Carew. 
Pitt — Macdowell. 
Fox — Baily. 
Mansfield — Baily. 
Chatham — Macdowell. 
Sir Robert Walpole— .9^//. 
Lord Somers — Marshall. 
Lord Clarendon — Marshall, 
Lord Falkland— ^^//. 
Hampden — Foley, 
Selden — Foley, 

It was by the door near Burke's statue that John Belling- 
ham the disappointed Russia merchant waited, May 11, 
1 81 2, to murder Spencer Perceval. 

Hence we enter the Central Hall, an octagon 70 feet 
square adorned with statues of kings and queens. On the 
left opens the Commons' Corridor ^ adorned with frescoes by 
E. M, Ward, viz. ; 

Alice Lisle helping fugitives to escape after the Battle of Sedge- 



THE HOUSE OF COMMONS, 387 

Jane Lane helping Charles 11. to escape after the Battle of "Wor- 
cester. 

The Last Sleep of Argyle. 

The Executioner tying Wishart's book round the neck of Montrose. 

The Lords and Commons presenting the crown to William and Mary 
in the Banqueting House. 

The Landing of Charles 11. at Dover, May 26, 1660. 

The Acquittal of the Seven Bishops. 

Monk declaring for a Free Parliament. 

Hence we enter the Lobby of the House of Commons. On 
the left, facing the river, are the luxurious rooms of the 
Library^ where members write their letters and concoct 
their speeches. 

The House of Commons^ " the principal chamber of the 
manufactory of statute law,"* only measures 75 ft. by 45, 
the smallest size possible for the sake of hearing, its 
architectural beauty as originally designed by Barry having 
been entirely sacrificed to sound. At the north end is 
the Speaker's chair, beneath which is the clerk's table, at 
the south end of which on brackets lies the mace, 
which was made at the Restoration in the place of " the 
fool's bauble " which Cromwell ordered to be taken away. 
The Ministerial benches are on the right of the Speaker, and 
the leaders of the Opposition sit opposite. Behind the 
Speaker is the Gallery for the Reporters of the Press, 
" the men for whom and to whom Parliament talks so 
lengthily ; the filter through which the senatorial eloquence 
is percolated for the public." f On either side of the 
House are the division lobbies, the " Ayes " on the west, 
the ** Noes " on the east. 

Returning to the Central Hall, the stairs on the left, 
adorned with a statue of Barry (1795 — 1860), lead to the 

* Quarterly Review, clxxxix. + Quarterly Review, clxxxix. 



388 IVALKS IN LONDON. 

Lobby of the Committee Rooms ^ decorated with frescoes of the 
English poets. 

The Peers' Corridor is lined with frescoes by E. W. Cope, 

Lenthall asserting the privileges of the Commons against Charles I. 

Charies I. erecting his standard at Nottingham. 

The Setting out of the Train Bands from London to relieve Glou- 
cester. 

The Defence of Basing House by the Cavaliers. 

The Embarkation of the Pilgrim Fathers. 

The Expulsion of the Fellows of Magdalen for refusing to sign the 
Covenant. 

The Parting of Lord and Lady Russell. 

The Burial of Charles I. 

On the right is the Standing Order Committee Room used 
for conferences between the Houses of Lords and 
Commons. It contains the beautiful fresco of "the Delivery 
of the Law by Moses" by Herbert. Its execution occupied 
seven years, in compliance with the theory of the artist, 
" if you paint when you are not inclined, you only spoil 
art." 

The House of Lords (loo ft. by 45), overladen with 
painting and gilding, has a flat roof and stained glass 
windows filled with portraits of kings and queens. The 
seats for the peers (for 235) are arranged longitudinally, the 
Government side being to the right of the throne, and the 
bishops nearest the throne. At the north end, below the 
Strangers' Gallery, is the dwarf screen of the bar, where 
witnesses are examined and culprits tried. Here the 
Speaker and Members of the House of Commons appear 
with a tumultuous rush, when they are summoned to hear 
the Queen's speech. Near the centre of the House is the 
Woolsack covered with crimson cloth, with cushions 
whence the Lord Chancellor reads prayers at the opening 



THE HOUSE OF LORDS, 389 

of the debates. The Princess of Wales sits here at the 
opening of Parliament, facing the throne. 

The Queen enters from the Prince's Chamber preceded 
by heralds and takes her seat here, the Mistress of the 
Robes and the Lady of the Bedchamber standing behind 
her, when the Lord Chancellor, kneeling, presents the 
Speech. The Throne is so placed, at the South end of the 
House, that, if all the doors were open, the Speaker of the 
House of Commons would be seen from it. 

" Thus at a prorogation the Queen on her throne and the Speaker 
in his chair face each other at a distance of some four- hundred and 
fifty feet, and the eagerness of the Commons in their race from their 
own House to the bar of the Lords has more than once amused their 
Sovereign Lady. It used to be an open race, but the start is now so 
managed that the Speaker and the parliamentary leaders first * touch 
wood,' as schoolboys say." — Quarterly Review , clxxxix. 

The frescoes above the throne are — 

Edward HI. conferring the Garter on the Black Prince. C, W» 
Cope. 
The Baptism of Ethelbert. W, Dyce. 
Prince Henry condemned by Judge Gascoigne. C, W, Cope, 

Over the Strangers' Gallery are — 

The Spirit of Justice. D. Maclise. 
The Spirit of Religion. T. C. Hornby, 
The Spirit of Chivalry. D. Maclise. 

On the south of the House of Lords is the Princes 
Chamber^ containing a very fine statue of Queen Victoria 
supported by Judgment and Mercy, by Gibson. This is 
approached from the Victoria Gate by the Royal Gallery^ 
containing MacHsis frescoes of the Death of Nelson and 
meeting of Blucher and Wellington. When the Queen 
consents to arrive by the Victoria Gate, this gallery is 



390 WALKS IN LONDON, 

crowded with ladies to see the procession pass. At its 
south end is the Queen's Robing Room, Hned with frescoes 
from the Story of King Arthur by Dyce, left unfinished by 
the death of the artist. This room is the best in the 
palace both in proportion and decoration. In a small 
room adjoining, used for committees, is a painted copy of a 
lost tapestry from the Painted Chamber, representing the 
English fleet pursuing the Spanish fleet at Fowey. 

The Victoria Tower is approached by the open space 
known as Old Palace Yard, where Chaucer lived and 
probably died in a house the site of which is now occupied 
by Henry VII.'s Chapel. Ben Jonson also died in a 
house here. It was here that the conspirators of the Gun- 
powder Plot suffered death, opposite to the windows of the 
house through which they carried the gunpowder into the 
vaults under the House of Lords. 

** The next day being Friday, were drawn from the Tower to the 
Old Palace Yard in Westminster, Thomas Winter, Rookewood^ Heyes, 
and Faukes. Winter went first up the scaffold, and protested that he 
died a true Catholick, with a very pale face and dead colour, he went up 
the ladder, and after a swing or two with the halter, to the quarter- 
ing block was drawn, and there quickly despatched. 

" Next came Rookewood, who protested to die in his idolatry a 
Romish Catholick, went up the ladder, hanging till he was almost 
dead, then was drawn to the block, where he gave up his last gasp. 

" Then came Heyes, who was so sturdy a villain that he would not 
wait the hangman's turn, but turned himself off with such a leap that 
he broke the halter with the swing ; but after his fall he was drawn to 
the block, and there his bowels withdrawn, and he was divided into 
four parts. 

" Last of all came the great Devil of all, Guy Faukes, alias John- 
son, who should have put fire to the powder. His body being weak 
with the torture and sickness he was scarce able to go up the ladder, 
yet with much ado, by the help of the hangman, went high enough to 
break his neck by the fall. He made no speech, but with his crosse.s 
and idle ce emonies made his end upon the gallows and the block, to 



OLD PALACE YARD. 391 

the great joy of all beholders that the land was ended of so wicked a 
villainy." — The Weekeley Newes, Munday, ^ist j^an., 1606. 

" The men who contrived, the men who prepared, the men who 
sanctioned, this scheme of assassination were, one and all, of Protestant 
birth. Father Parsons was Protestant born. Father Owen and Father 
Garnet were Protestant bom. From what is known of Winter's early 
life, it may be assumed that he was a Protestant. Catesby and Wright 
had been Protestant boys. Guy Fawkes had been a Protestant, Perry 
had been a Protestant. The minor persons were like their chiefs — 
apostates from their early faith, with the moody weakness which is 
an apostate's inspiration and his curse. Tresham was a convert — 
Monteagle was a convert — Digby was a convert. Thomas Morgan, 
Robert Kay, and Kit Wright, were all converts. The five gentlemen 
who dug the mine in Palace yard, were all of English blood and of 
Protestant birth. But they were converts and fanatics, observing no 
law save that of their own passions ; men of whom it should be said, 
in justice to all religions, that they no more disgraced the church which 
they entered than that which they had left." — Hepworth Dixon. 

Here, Oct. 29, 1618, being Lord Mayor's Day, Sir Walter 
Raleigh was led to execution at eight o'clock in the 
morning and said as he playfully touched the axe, *' This is 
a sharp medicine, but it will cure all diseases." 

" His death was managed by him with so high and religious a reso- 
lution, as if a Roman had acted a Christian, or rather a Christian a 
Roman . ' ' — Osborne. 

Sir Walter's head was preserved by Lady Raleigh in a 
glass-case during the twenty-nine years through which she 
survived him, and afterwards by her son Carew : with him 
it is believed to be buried at Horsley in Surrey. 

In front of the Palace stands the equestrian statue of 
Richard Cceur de Lion by Marochetti — a poor work, the 
action of the figure being quite inconsistent with that of the 
horse. 

The Church of St. Margaret^ Westminster^ is the especial 
church of the House of Commons, and, except the Abbev 



393 WALKS IN LONDON. 

and St. Paul's, has the oldest .foundation in London, having 
been founded by the Confessor and dedicated to Margaret, 
the martyr of Antioch, partly to divert to another building 
the crowds who inundated the Abbey church, and partly 
for the benefit of the multitudes of refugees in Sanctuary. 

The church was rebuilt by Edward I., again was re-edified 
in the time of Edward IV. by Sir Thomas Billing and his 
wife Lady Mary, and it has been greatly modernised in the 
last century. Here the Fast Day Sermons were preached 
in the reign of Charles I.; and here both Houses of Parlia- 
ment, with the Assembly of Divines and the Scots Com- 
missioners, met Sept. 25, 1643, and were prepared by 
prayer for taking the Covenant. 

*' Then Mr. Nye in the pulpit read the Covenant, and all present 
held up their hands in testimony of their assent to it ; and afterwards 
in the several Houses subscribed their names in a parchment roll, where 
the Covenant was written : the Divines of the Assembly, and the Scots 
Commissioners likewise subscribed the Covenant, and then Dr. Gouge 
in the pulpit prayed for a blessing upon it." — Whitelocke, p. 74. 

Here Hugh Peters, " the pulpit buftbon," denounced 
Charles as " the great Barabbas of Windsor," and urged 
Parliament to bring the King " to condign, speedy, and 
capital punishment." " My lords," he said, '* and you, 
noble gentlemen of the House of Commons, you are the 
Sanhedrim, and the great Council of the nation, therefore 
you must be sure to do justice. Do not prefer the great 
Barabbas, Murderer, Tyrant, and Traitor, before these poor 
hearts (pointing to the red-coats), and the army, who are 
our Saviours." * 

Amongst the Puritans who preached here were " Calamy, 
Vines, Nye, Manton, Marshall, Gauden, Owen, Burgess, 

• Examination of Beaver in the trial of Husfb Peters. 



ST, MARGARET'S, WESTMINSTER. 393 

Newcomen, Reynolds, Cheynell, Baxter, Case (who cen- 
sured Cromwell to his face, and when discoursing before 
General Monk, cried out, * There are some who will betray 
three kingdoms for filthy lucre's sake,' and threw his hand- 
kerchief into the General's pew) ; the critical Lightfoot ; 
Taylor, 'the illuminated Doctor'; and Goodwyn, 'the 
windmill with a weathercock upon the top.' " * 

In later times the rival divines Burnet and Sprat 
preached here before Parliament in the same morning. 

" Burnet and Sprat were old rivals. There prevailed in those days 
an indecent custom : when the preacher touched any favourite topic in 
a manner that delighted his audiences, their approbation was expressed 
by a loud hum, continued in proportion to their zeal or pleasure. 
When Burnet preached, part of his congregation hummed so loudly 
and so long, that he sate down to enjoy it, and rubbed his face with his 
handkerchief. When Sprat preached, he hkewise was honoured with 
a like animating hum, but he stretched out his hand to the congrega- 
tion, and cried, *" Peace, peace, I pray you, peace ! ' " — Dr. Johnson. 

Sir John Jekyl told Speaker Onslow in proof of Burnet's 
popularity that one day when he was present the Bishop 
preached out his hourglass before exhausting his subject. 
" He took it up, and held it aloft in his hand, and then 
turned it up for another hour ; upon which the audience 
set up almost a shout of joy ! " 

It was in St. Margaret's that Dr. Sacheverell preached his 
first sermon after his suspension, on Palm Sunday, 1713. 

The most important feature of the church is the east 
window, justly cited by Winston, the great authority on 
stained glass, as the most beautiful work as regards 
harmonious arrangement of colouring with which he is ac- 
quainted It was ordered by Ferdinand and Isabella to 

• Walcott's " Westminster." 



394 WALKS IN LONDON, 

be executed at Gouda in Holland, and was intended as a 
gift to the new chapel which Henry VH. was building, 
upon the marriage of their daughter Catherine with his 
eldest son Arthur. But the execution of the window 
occupied five years, and before it was finished Prince 
Arthur was dead, and the chapel was finished. Henry VHI. 
presented the window to Waltham Abbey, and thence, on 
the Dissolution, the last abbot sent it for safety to his 
private chapel at New Hall, an estate which was afterwards 
purchased by Sir Thomas Boleyn, father of Queen Anne. 
The window remained at New Hall till the place became 
the property of General Monk, who took down the window 
and buried it, to preserve it from the Puritans, but replaced 
it in his chapel at the Restoration. After his death the 
chapel was pulled down, but the window was preserved and 
was eventually purchased by Mr. Conyers of Copt Hall in 
Essex, by whose son it was sold in 1758 to the church- 
wardens of St. Margaret's for ;£"4oo.* Even then the 
window was not suffered to rest in peace, as the Dean and 
Chapter of Westminster looked upon it as " a superstitious 
image and picture," and brought a lawsuit for its removal, 
which, after having been fought for seven years, happily 
failed in the end.t 

The window represents — on a deep blue background — 
the Crucifixion, in which, as in many old Italian pictures, 
angels are catching the blood which flows from the 
Saviour's wounds, the soul of the penitent thief is received by 
an angel, while the soul of the bad thief is carried off by a 



• Timbs's "Curiosities of London." 

•f In memory of this triumph the then churchwarden presented to the parish 

the beautiful " Loving Cup of St. Margaret." 



ST. MARGARET'S, WESTMINSTER. 395 

demon. At the foot of the cross kneels on one side 
Arthur, Prince of Wales, with his patron St. George and the 
red and white roses of his parents over his head ; on the 
other Katherine of Arragon, with St. Cecilia above her, and 
the pomegranate of Granada. 

Over the altar is the Supper at Emmaus, executed in 
lime-wood in 1753 by Aike7i of Soho from the Titian in the 
Louvre. In the porch near the north-western entrance is 
a beautiful carved sixteenth-century seat where a loaf of 
bread and sixpence are given every Sunday to sixteen poor 
widows in accordance with the will of Mrs. Joyce Goddard, 
162 1. Close by is the mural monument of Mrs. Elizabeth 
Corbett (who died of cancer) with Pope's famous epitaph — 

" Here rests a woman, good without pretence, 
Blest with plain reason, and with sober sense : 
No conquest she but her own self desired, 
No arts essayed, but not to be admired : 
Passion and pride were to her soul unknown ; 
Convinced that virtue only is our own : 
So unaffected, so composed a mind, 
So firm, yet soft, so strong, yet so refined, 
Heaven, as its purest gold, by tortures tried ;— 
The saint sustain'd it, but the woman died." 

** I have always considered this as the most valuable of all Pope*s 

epitaphs ; the subject of it is a character not discriminated by any 
shining or eminent peculiarities ; yet that which really makes, though 
not the splendour, the felicity of life, and that which every wise man 
will choose for his friend and lasting companion in the languor of age, 
in the quiet of privacy, when he departs weary and disgusted from the 
ostentatious, the volatile, and the vain. Of such a character, which 
the dull overlook, and the gay despise, it was fit that the value should 
be made known, and the dignity estabhshed. Domestic virtue, as it is 
exerted without great occasions, or conspicuous consequences, in an 
even tenor, required the genius of Pope to display it in such a manner 
as might attract regard, and enforce reverence. Who can forbear to 
lament that this amiable woman has no name in the verse ? " — Dr. 
jfohnson. 



396 WALK'S IN LONDON, 

In the same western porch are the monuments of James 
Palmer, 1659, and Emery Hill ^ 1677, founders of the Alms- 
houses which are called by their names. In the north aisle 
is the curious but much injured Flemish monument and 
bust of Cornelius Vandun of Breda, 1577, builder of the 
almshouses in Petty France — " souldier with King Henry at 
Turney, Yeoman of the Guard, and Usher to King Henry, 
King Edward, Queen Mary, and Queen Elizabeth : a care- 
ful man for poore folke, who in the end of this toune did 
build for poore widowes twenty houses, of his owne cost." 
Another monument, with quaint verses, commemorates " the 
late deceased virgin, Mistris Elizabeth Hereicke." Near 
the north-east door is the monument of Mrs, Joane Bamett^ 
1674, who sold oatmeal cakes by the church door, and left 
money for a sermon and the maintenance of poor widows. 
In the north-eastern porch are many monuments with 
effigies offering interesting examples of costume of the 
time of James I., and that to Lady Dorothy Stafford^ 1604, 
whose mother Ursula was daughter of the famous Countess 
of Salisbury, the only daughter of George, Duke of 
Clarence, brother of King Edward the Fourth : — " She 
served Queen Elizabeth forty years, lying in the bed- 
chamber, esteemed of her, loved of all, doing good all she 
could, a continual remembrancer of the suite of the poor." 
A tablet, with a relief of his death, commemorates Sir Peter 
Parker, 18 14. 

In the chancel is buried John Skelton, 1529, the satirical 
poet laureate called by Erasmus ** Britannicarum literarum 
lumen et decus," who died in Sanctuary, to which he was 
driven by the enmity of Wolsey, excited by his squibs on 
bad customs and bad clergy. Near him (not in the porch) 



ST. MARGARET'S, WESTMI'NSTER. 397 

rests another court poet of Henry VIII. and Elizabeth — 
Thomas Churchyard^ 1604, whose adventurous life was one 
long romance. His best work was his "Legende of Jane 
Shore." " He was one of those unfortunate men who wrote 
poetry all his days, and lived a long life, to complete his 
misfortune." * Camden gives his epitaph, which has dis- 
appeared.! Near these graves is that of a poet of the 
Commonwealth, James Harrington^ 1677, author of the 
republican romance called " Oceana." Here also was 
buried Milton's beloved second wife, Katherine Woodcocke 
(Feb. 10, 1602), who died in childbirth a yeai after her 
marriage to the poet. 

In the south-eastern porch is the stately tomb of Marie, 
Lady Dudley, 1620: — "She was grandchilde to Thomas, 
Duke of Norfolke, the second of that surname, and sister to 
Charles Howard, Earl of Nottingham, Lord High Admiral 
of England, by whose prosperous direction, through the 
goodness of God in defending his handmaid Queen Eliza- 
beth, the whole fleet of Spain was defeated and discom- 
fited." She married first Edward Sutton, Lord Dudley, 
and secondly Richard Mountpesson, who is represented 
kneeling beside her. A tablet by Westmacott^ erected in 
1820, commemorates William Caxton, the printer, 1492, 
who long worked in the neighbouring Almonry and is 
buried in the churchyard. A brass plate was put up here 
in 1845 to Sir Walter Raleighy beheaded close by, and 
buried beneath the altar. 



• D'Israeli, " Calamities of Authors." 

i "Come, Alecto, lend a torch. 

To find a Churchyard in a church porch; 
Poverty and poetry this torch doth enclose* 
Therefore gentlemen be merry in prose." 



398 WALKS IN LONDON. 

Exiled to the vestry, but preserved there, are the " State 
Arms " put up in the church under the Puritan rule, but a 
crown has been added. After the Restoration, the church 
authorities rushed into the opposite extreme of loyal 
display, and a triumphal arch used to be erected inside the 
church annually in commemoration of the time of the king's 
return, till it fell and killed a carpenter in the beginning of 
the last century. The churchwardens for a hundred and 
fifty years have held with their office the possession of a 
very curious Horn Snuff-box^ inside the lid of which is a 
head of the Duke Cumberland engraved by Hogarth in 
1746, to commemorate the Battle of Culloden. Successive 
churchwardens have enclosed it in a succession of silver 
cases, beautifully engraved with representations of the 
historical events which have occurred when they held office, 
so that it has become a really valuable curiosity. 

Before leaving this church one may notice the marriage, 
at its altar, of Edward Hyde, Earl of Clarendon, grandfather 
of Mary II. and Anne, with Frances, daughter of Sir 
Thomas Aylesbury ; and the baptism, at its font (Nov. 
1640), of Barbara Villiers, the notorious Duchess of Cleve- 
land. The restoration of the church is contemplated, 
which, it is to be hoped may conduce to the preservation, 
not (as is so often the case in London) to the ruin, of its 
monuments, which afford so many quiet glimpses of Eliza- 
bethan and Jacobean History. 

The Churchyard of St. Margaret's is closely paved with 
tombstones. Wenceslaus Hollar, the engraver (1677), is 
said to He near the north-west angle of the tower. Here 
also are buried Sir William Waller, the Parliamentary 
general (1668), and Thomas Blood, celebrated for his 



ST. yOHN'S, WESTMINSTER, 399 

attempt to steal the regalia (1680). The bodies of the 
mother of Oliver Cromwell ; of Admiral Blake (who had 
been honoured with a public funeral) ; of Sir Thomas 
Constable and Dr. Dorislaus, concerned in the trial of 
'Charles I.; of Thomas May, the poet and historian of the 
Commonwealth, and others famous under the Protectorate, 
when exhumed from the Abbey, were caielessly interred 
here. One cannot leave the churchyard without recalling 
its association with the poet Cowper, while he was a West- 
minster boy. 

"Crossing St. Margaret's Churchyard one evening, a glimmering 
light in the midst of it excited his curiosity, and, instead of quickening 
his speed, he, whistling to keep up his courage the Avhile, went to see 
whence it proceeded. A gravedigger was at work there by lantern- 
light, and, just as Cowper came to the spot, he tlu-ew up a skull which 
struck him on the leg. This gave an alarm to his conscience, and he 
reckoned the incident as amongst the best religious impressions which 
he received at Westminster." — Sout key's Life of Cowper. 

On the south and west of the Abbey and the precincts 
of Westminster School is a labyrinth of poor streets. 

Vi7ie Street commemorated the vineyard of the Abbey. 
Many of the old Westminster signs are historical — the 
Lamb and Saracen's Head, a record of the Crusades ; the 

White Hart, the badge of Richard II.; the J^ose, the badge 
of the Tudors. In the poverty-stricken quarter, not far 
from the river, is St. John's Church, the second of Queen 
Anne's fifty churches, built (1728) from designs of Archer, a 
,pui)il of Vanbrugh. It has semi-circular apses on the east 
and west, and at each of the four corners one of the towers 
which made Lord Chesterfield compare it to an elephant on 
its back with its four feet in the air. The effect at a 
distance is miserable, but the details of the church are good 



400 



WALKS IN LONDON. 



when you approach them. Churchill, the poet, was curate 
and lecturer here (1758), and how utterly unsuited for the 
office we learn from his own lines : — 

** I kept those sheep, 
Which, for my curse, I was ordain'd to keep, 
Ordain'd, alas ! to keep through need, not choice. • • 
Whilst, sacred dulness ever in my view, 
Sleep, at my bidding, crept from pew to pew." 

Horseferry Road, near this, leads to Lambeth Bridge, 
erected in 1862 on the site of the horse-ferry, where Mary of 
Modena crossed the river in her flight from Whitehall 
(Dec. 9, 1688), her passsge being "rendered very difficult 
and dangerous by the violence of the wind and the heavy 
and incessant rain." At the same spot James II. crossed 
two days after in a little boat with a single pair of oars, and 
dropped the great seal of England into the river on his 
passage. The large open space called Vincent Square is used 
as a playground by the Westminster Scholars. In Rochester 
Row, on the north of the square, is St, Stepheiis Church, 
built by Miss Burdett Coutts in 1847, and opposite this 
Emery HilV s Almshouses of 1708. At the end of Rochester 
Row towards Victoria Street is the Grey Coat School, a 
quaint building of 1698, with two statues in front in the 
costume of the children for whom it was founded. In the 
narrow streets near this is Tothill Fields Prison, built 1836. 
The gate of the earlier prison here, called Bridewell, is pre- 
served in the garden. 

At the end of Victoria Street, opposite the entrance to 
Dean's Yard, is a very picturesque Memorial Column, by 
Scott^ in memory of the old Westminster boys killed in the 
Crimean war ; and at the corner of Great George Street is a 



QUEEN ANNE'S GATE. 



401 



Fountain (by Teuton and Earp)^ erected in 1865 t>y Mr. 
Charles Buxton, in honour of those who effected the 
abolition of the Slave trade. With its pretty coloured 
marbles and the trees behind, it is one of the most 
picturesque things in London. Near this is a Statue of George 
Canning by Westmacott^ erected in 1832. It was in the 




In Queen Anne's Gate. 



drawing-room of the opposite house, No. 25, Great George 
Street, that the body of Lord Byron lay in state, July 1824, 
when it arrived from Missolonghi before its removal to New- 
stead. Great George Street ends at Storey's Gate, so called 
from Edward Storey, " Keeper of the Birds " (in Birdcage 
Walk) to Charles IL Parallel with the Park on this side 
runs Queen Annis Gate, with many houses bearing the 

7vOL. II. D D 



402 WALKS IN LONDON', 

comfortable solid look of her date, and with porches and 
doorways of admirable design carved in wood : a statue of 
Queen Anne stands at an angle. 

To thill Street leads into York Street, named after 
Frederick, Duke of York, son of George III., but formerly 
called Petty France, from the number of French Protestants 
who took refuge there in 1635. Here No. 19, destroyed in 
1877 (without a voice being raised to save it), was Milton's 
" pretty garden house " marked on the garden side by a 
tablet erected by Jeremy Bentham (who lived and died 
close by in Queen Square Place) inscribed " Sacred to 
Milton, Prince of Poets." It was here that he became 
blind, and that Andrew Marvell lived as his secretary. His 
first wife, Mary Powell, died here, leaving three little girls 
motherless, and here he married his second wife, Catherine 
Woodcocke, who died in childbirth a year after, and is 
commemorated in the beautiful sonnet beginning — 

*' Methought I saw my late espoused saint, 

Brought to me, like Alcestis, from the grave." 

Hazlitt lived here in Milton's house, and here he received 
Haydon, " Charles Lamb and his poor sister, and all sorts 
of clever odd people, in a large room, wainscoted and 
ancient, where Milton had meditated." * 

We may turn down Bridge Street} to Westminster Bridge^ 
opened 1750, but rebuilt 1 859-6 r. It is now nearly twice 
as broad as any of the other bridges on the river. Hence 
we see the stately river front of the Houses of Parliament, 

• Haydon's Autobiography, i. 211. 

+ William Godwin, author of " Caleb Williams," died {1836) in a house (now 
destroyed) on the left. At the angle on the left is St. Stephen's Club, erected 
1874, from an admirable design of J. Whichcord. 



WESTMINSTER BRIDGE. 403 

and the ancient towers of Lambeth on the opposite bank.'*' 
It is interesting to remember how many generations have 
" taken water " here to "go to London " by the great 
river highway. 

Few visit the bridge early enough to see the view towards 
the City as it is described by Wordsworth — 

** Earth has not anything to shew more fair : 
Dull would he be of soul who could pass by, 
A sight so touching in its majesty ; 
The City now doth Hke a garment wear 
The beauty of the morning ; silent, bare, 
Ships, towers, domes, theatres, and temples lie 
Open unto the fields, and to the sky, 
All bright and glittering in the smokeless air. 
Never did sun more beautifully steep 
In his first splendour vaUey, rock, or hill; 
Ne'er saw I, never felt, a calm so deep ! 
The river glideth at its own sweet will : 
Dear God ! the very houses seem asleep, 
And all that mighty heart is lying still ! " 

* Artists should find their way to the banks amongst the I oatg and waiehoases 
on the Westminster shore opposite Lambeth and farther stilL 



CHAPTER IX. 
LAMBETH. 

ON crossing Westminster Bridge we are in Lamheth^ 
originally a swamp, traversed by the great Roman 
road to Newhaven, now densely populated, and covered 
with a labyrinth of featureless streets and poverty-stricken 
courts. The name, by doubtful etymology, is derived from 
Lamb-hithe, a landing-place for sheep. 

[The Westminster Bridge Road — well known from Astlefs 
A7nphitheatre'^^ for horsemanship — leads to Kennington, the 
King's Town, where a royal manor existed from the time 
of the Anglo-Saxon Kings to that of the Stuarts, when 
Charles I. was its last inhabitant. It was here that (1041) 
Hardicanute died suddenly at a wedding-feast — " with a 
tremendous struggle" — while he was drinking. Nothing 
remains now of the palace. 

At the junction of Kennington Road and Lambeth Road 
is the new Bethlem Hospital, best known as Bedlam. It was 
called Bedlam even by Sir Thomas More,* in whose time it 
was already a lunatic asylum. The Hospital was only trans- 

* Named from the handsome Philip Astley, builder of niaeteen theatres, who 
died at Paris, 1814. 

t De Quatuor Novissimis. ^ 



ST, GEORGE'S CATHEDRAL. 405 

ported to its present site from Moorfields near Bishopsgate 
in 1810-15. Till 1770 "Bedlam" was one of the regular 
"sights" of London, and the public were allowed to divert 
themselves with a sight of the unfortunate lunatics for the 
sum of one penny. The patients, both male and female, 
were chained to the walls till 1815, when the death of a man 
named Norris, who had lived for twelve years rationally con- 
versing and reading, yet chained to the wall by a ring round 
his neck and iron bars pinioning his arms and waist, led to 
an inquiry in Parliament, which resulted in their better 
treatment : now nothing is left to be desired. 

In the entrance-hall are preserved the famous statues of 
Melancholy and Madness, by Cains Gabriel Cibber^ which 
stood over the gates of old Bedlam, and were there attacked 
by Pope in his satire on Colley Gibber, the son of Caius 

Gabriel. 

" Where o'er the gates by his famed father's hand 
Great Gibber's brazen brainless brothers stand." 

Many others have abused the statues, but, in this case, 
public opinion has outweighed all individual prejudices. 

" These are the earliest indications of the appearance of a distinct 
and natural spirit in sculpture, and stand first in conception and only 
second in execution among all the productions of the island. Those 
who see them for the first time are fixed to the spot with terror and 
awe ; an impression is made on the heart never to be removed ; nor is 
the impression of a vulgar kind. The poetry of those terrible infirmi- 
ties is embodied ; from the degradation of the actual madhouse we 
turn overpowered and disgusted, but from those magnificent creations 
we retire in mingled awe and admiration." — Allan Cunningham. 

Facing the eastern wing of the Hospital is St. Georgia 
Church, the Roman Catholic Cathedral, a beautiful work of 
A. W, Piigin. It was opened July 4th, 1848. Cardinal 



406 WALKS IN LONDON. 

Wiseman was enthroned here, 1850. It is curious that the 
most important Roman Catholic church in England should 
have been raised on the very spot where the 20,000 " No 
Popery " rioters were summoned to meet Lord George 
Gordon in 1780, and, distinguished by the blue cockades 
in their hats, to attend him to Westminster. The scene, 
Fays Gibbon, was " as if forty thousand Puritans, such as 
they might have been in the days of Cromwell, had started 
out of their graves." * 

Kennington Common (now Park) became famous in 1848 
from the great revolutionar}' meeting of Chartists under 
Feargus O'Connor, which was such a ludicrous failure. It 
was here that " Jemmy Dawson," commemorated in Shen- 
stone's ballad, was hung, drawn, and quartered (July 30, 
1746) for the rebellion of 1745. Whitefield sometimes 
preached here to congregations of 40,000 people, and 
here he deUvered his farewell sermon before leaving for 
America. 

"Friday, August 3, 1739. — Having spent the day in completing my 
affairs and taking leave of dear friends, I preached in the evening to 
near 20,000 people at Kennington Common. I chose to discourse on 
St. Paul's parting speech to the elders of Ephesus ; at which the 
people were exceedingly affected, and almost prevented my making 
any application. ]\Iany tears were shed when I talked of leaving them. 
I concluded with a suitable hymn, but could scarce get to the coach 
for the people thronging me, to take me by the hand, and give me a 
parting blessing." — George WhitefieWs Diary."] 

From Westminster Bridge, Stangate runs to the right with 
a beautiful stone terrace along the river. The frightful row 
of semi-detached brick buildings belongs to St. Thomases 
Hospital, removed hither (1868-72) from Southwark; their 

• Misc. Works, p. 299, ed. 1837. 



ST. AJARV, LAMBETH. 407 

chief ornament is thoroughly EngHsh — a row of hideous 
urns upon the parapet, which seem waiting for the ashes of 
the patients inside. The Hospital originated in an Alms- 
house founded by the Prior of Bermondsey in 12 13. It 
was bought by the City of London at the Dissolution, and 
was refounded by Edward VI. In the first court in front 
of the present building is a statue of Edward VI. by Schee- 
makers, set up by Charles Joyce in 1737 : in the second 
court is a statue of Sir Robert Clayton, a benefactor of the 
hospital — " the fanatic Lord Mayor " of Dryden's " Religio 
Laici "—in his Lord Mayor's robes. 

Passing under the wall of the Archbishop's garden, and 
beneath the Lollard's Tower, with its niche for a figure of 
St. Thomas, we reach Lambeth Palace and Church. It was 
beneath this church tower that Queen Mary Beatrice took 
refuge on the night of Dec. 9, 1688. 

"The party stole down the back stairs (of Whitehall), and embarked 
in an open skiff. It was a miserable voyage. The night was bleak ; 
the rain fell : the wind roared : the water was rough : at length the 
boat reached Lambeth ; and the fugitives landed near an inn, where a 
coach and horses were in waiting. Sometime elapsed before the 
horses could be harnessed. Mary, afraid that her face might be 
known, would not enter the house. She remained with her child, 
cowering for shelter from the storm under the tower of Lambeth 
Church, and distracted by terror whenever the ostler approached her with 
his lantern. Two of her women attended her, one who gave suck to 
the Prince, and one whose office was to work his cradle ; but they 
could be of little use to their mistress ; for both were foreigners who 
could hardly speak the English langiiage, and who shuddered at the 
rigour of the English climate. The only consolatory circumstance was 
that the little boy was well, and uttered not a single cry. At length 
the coach was ready. The fugitives reached Gravesend safely, and 
embarked in the yacht which waited for them." — Macaulay. 

The Church of St, Mary, Lambeth, was formerly one ot 
the most interesting churches in London, being, next to 



4o8 IVALKS IN LONDON. 

Canterbu-ry Cathedral, the great burial-place of its arcn- 
bishops, but falling under the ruthless hand of *' restorers," 
it was rebuilt (except its tower of 1377) in 1851-52 by 
IIa?'divick, and its interest has been totally destroyed, 
its monuments huddled away anywhere, for the most part 
close under the roof, where their inscriptions are of 
course wholly illegible ! High up in the south porch, 
behind a hideous wooden screen, are the curious bust and 
tablet of Robert Scott of Bowerie, 1631, who "invented a 
leather ordnance." In the chancel are the tombs of Hubert 
Peyntwin, auditor to Archbishops Moreton and Wareham, 
and Dr. Monpesson, Master of the Prerogative for the Arch- 
bishop of Canterbury ; in the north transept are tablets to 
Archbishop Matthew Hutton, 1758, and Archbishop Fre- 
derick Cornwallis, 1783, and near these the brass of a Knight 
(Thomas Clerc, 1545?). At the northern entrance of the 
chancel is the brass of a lady of the Howard family, to 
which, before the "restoration" there were many interesting 
memorials here. No other monuments of importance are 
now to be distinguished. Amongst those commemorated 
here before the " restoration " were Archbishop Bancroft, 
1 6 10 (within the altar-rails); Archbishop Tenison, 1715 (in 
the middle of the chancel); Archbishop Seeker, 1768 ; Arch- 
bishop Moore, 1805 ; Alderman Goodbehere ; Madame 
Storace, the singer ; John Doilond, 1 761, the discoverer of 
the laws of the dispersion of light and inventor of the 
achromatic telescope; Edward Moore, 1757, author of the 
successful tragedy of "The Gamester," which is still a 
favourite ; Thomas Cooke, the translator of Hesiod, 1757 ; 
and Elias Ashmole, the antiquary, 1693, founder of the 
Ashmolean Museum and author of the History of the Order 



ST. MARY, LAMBETH. 409 

of the Garter — " the greatest virtuoso and curioso that 
ever was known or read of in England before his time." * 

In digging the grave of Bishop Cornwallis, the body of 
Thomas Thirleby, first and last Bishop of Westminster, was 
found entire, dressed like the pictures of Archbishop Juxon 
He died in an honourable captivity as the guest of Arch- 
bishop Parker in Lambeth Palace. 

The Register records the burial here of Simon Forman, 
the astrologer, 161 1. Here also was buried Cuthbert Tun- 
stall, the Catholic Bishop of Durham, deprived by Elizabeth 
lor refusing the oath of supremacy. He was given to the 
charge of Archbishop Parker in July 1539, and died as his 
honoured guest in Lambeth Palace on the i8th of Novem- 
ber in the same year. He is described by Erasmus as 
excelling all his contemporaries in the knowledge of the 
learned languages, and by Sir Thomas More as " surpassed 
by no man in erudition, virtue, and amiability." 

«*He was a papist only by profession; no way influenced by the 
spirit of Popery : but he was a good Catholic, and had true notions of 
the genius of Christianity. He considered a good hfe as the end, and 
faith as the means." — iVilliam Gilpin^ Life of Bernard Gilpin 
{TunstaWs nephew). 

Almost the only interesting feature retained in this cruelly 
abused building is the figure of a pedlar with his pack and 
dog (on the third window of the north aisle) who left 
" Pedlar's Acre " to the parish, on condition of his figure 
being always preserved on one of the church windows. The 
figure was existing here as early as 1608. 

In the churchyard, at the east end of the church, is an 
altar tomb, with the angles sculptured like trees, spreading 

■^ ood, " Atb^n. Oxon." 



4IO WALKS IN LONDON. 

over a strange confusion of obelisks, pyramids, crocodiles, 
shells, &c., and, at one end, a hydra. It is the monument 
of John Tradescant (1638) and his son, two of the earliest 
British naturalists. The elder was so enthusiastic a bota- 
nist that he joined an expedition against Algerine corsairs 
on purpose to get a new apricot from the African coast, 
■which was thenceforth known as " the Algier Apricot." 




Gateway, Lambeth Palace. 

His quaint medley of curiosities, known in his own time as 
*' Tradeskin's Ark," was afterwards incorporated with the 
Ashmolean Museum. 

" Lambeth envy of each band and gown " {Po^e) 

has been for more than 700 years the residence of the Arch- 
bishops 6f Canterbury, though the site of the present palace 
was only obtained by Archbishop Baldwin in 1197, when 



LAMBETH PALACE. 



411 



he exchanged some lands in Kent for it with Glanville, 
Bishop of Rochester, to whose see it had been granted by 
the Countess Goda, sister of the Confessor. The former 
proprietorship of the Bishops of Rochester is still comme- 
morated in Rochester Row^ Lambeth^ on the site of a house 
which was retained when the exchange was made, for their 
use when they came to attend Parliament. The Palace is 
full of beauty in itself and intensely interesting from its 




Inner Court. 



associations. It is approached by a noble Gateway of red 
brick with stone dressings, built by Cardinal Moreton in 
1490. It is here that the poor of Lambeth have received 
*' the Archbishops' Dole " for hundreds of years. In ancient 
times a farthing loaf was given twice a week to 4,000 
people. 

Adjoining the Porter's Lodge is a room evidently once 
used as a prison. On passing the gate we are in the outer 



412 WALKS IN LONDON. 

court, at the end of which rises the picturesque Lollards' 
Tower built by Archbishop Chicheley, 1434-45 : on the 
right is the Hall. A second gateway leads to the inner 
court, containing the modern (Tudor) palace, built by Arch- 
bishop Howley (1828-48), who spent the whole of his 
private fortune upon it rather than let Blore the architect 
be ruined by exceeding his contract to the amount of 
^,{^30,000. On the left, between the buttresses of the hall, 
are the descendants of some famous fig-trees which were 
planted by Cardinal Pole. 

The Hall was built by Archbishop Juxon in the reign of 
Charles II., on the site of the hall built by Archbishop 
Boniface (1244), which was pulled down by Scot and 
Hardyng the regicides, who purchased the palace when it 
was sold under the Commonwealth. Juxon's arms and the 
date 1663 are over the door leading to the palace. The 
stained window opposite contains the arms of many of the 
archbishops, and a portrait of Archbishop Chicheley.* 
Archbishop Bancroft, whose arms appear at the east end, 
turned the hall into a Library, and the collection of books 
which it contains has been enlarged by his successors, 
especially by Archbishop Seeker, whose arms appear at 
the west end, and who bequeathed his library to Lambeth. 
Upon the death of Laud, the books were saved from 
dispersion through being claimed by the University of 
Cambridge, under the will of Bancroft, which provided 
that they should go to the University if alienated from 
the see : they were restored by Cambridge to Archbishop 
Sheldon. The library contains a number of valuable 
MSS., the greatest treasure being a copy of Lord Rivers's 

• The motto v ch sunounds it is misplaced, and belongs to Cranmer. 



LAMBETH PALACE. 413 

translation of the " Diets and Sayings of tie Philosophers," 
with an illumination of the Earl presenting Caxton on his 
knees to Edward IV. Beside the King stand Elizabeth 
Woodville and her eldest son, and thi* the only known 
portrait of Edward V., is engraved by Vertue in his Kings 
of England. 

A glass-case contains — the Four Gospels in Irish, a 
volume which belonged to King Athelstan, and was 
given by him to the city of Canterbury ; a copy of the 
Koran written by Sultan Allaruddeen Siljuky in the 15th 
century, taken in the Library of Tippoo Saib at Seringa- 
patam ; the Lumley Chronicle of St. Alban's Abbey ; Queen 
Elizabeth's Prayer- Book, with illuminations from Holbein's 
Dance of Death destroyed in Old St. Pauls ; an illuminated 
copy 01 he Apocalypse, of the 13th century; the Mazarine 
Testament, ^5th century; and the rosary of Cardinal Pole. 

A staircase, Hned with portraits of the Walpole family, 

leads from the Library to the Guard Room, now the Dining 

Hall. It is surrounded by an interesting series of portraits 

of the archbishops from the beginning of the sixteenth 

century.* 

William Warham (1 504 — IS33) » translated from London; Lord 
Chancellor. The picture, by Holbein, \n,s presented to the archbishop 
by the artist, together with a small portrait of Erasmus, which is now 
lost. This portrait belonged to Archbishop Parker, and is appraised 
at ;i^5 in the inventory of his goods. 

Thomas Cranmer (1533 — 1555-6) ; Archdeacon of Taunton, first 
Protestant Archbishop of Canterbury. Here (May 28, 1533) he de- 
clared and confirmed the marriage of Henry VIII. and Anne Boleyn, 
and here, three years later, " having God alone before his eyes," he 
said the marriage was and always had been null and void, in con- 
sequence of impediments unknown at the time of the union. On the 
accession of Mary, he was found guilty of high treason, foi having 

• Unfortunately not hung in their orrier. 



414 



WALKS IN LONDON. 



declared for Lady Jane Grey : he was pardoned the treason, but was 
burnt for heresy at Oxford, March 21, 1555. His palace at Lambeth, 
says Gilpin, might be called a seminary of learned men ; the greatei 
part of whom persecution had banished from home. Here, among 
other reformers, Martyr, Bucer, Aless, and Phage, found sanctuary. 

Reginald Pole {1556— 1559) ; Dean of Exeter, Cardinal. Mary I. 
refurnished Lambeth for Cardinal Pole, who was her cousin and whom 
she frequently visited here : he died a few hours after her. Fuller 
narrates that he was chosen by a night council to succeed Paul III. as 
Pope, but that he refused to accept a deed of darkness, and the next 
day the cardina's had changed their minds, and elected Julius HI. 

" His youthful books were full of the flowers of rhetoric, whilst the 
withered stalks are only found in the writings of his old age, so dry 
their style, and dull their conceit." — Fuller's Worthies. 

Matthew Parker (1559 — 1575); Dean of Lincoln. "A Parker 
indeed," says Fuller, " careful to keep the fences and shut the gates of 
discipline against all such night -stealers as would invade the same." 

Edmund Grindal (1575 — 1583) ; translated from York. He was a 
great favourer of the Puritans and fell into disgi-ace with Elizabeth, by 
his opposition to her commands with regard to the restriction of 
preachers, which he considered an infringement of his office. 

John Whit gift (1583 — 1 604) ; translated from Worcester. A strong 
opponent of Puritanism, though, says Hooker, " he always governed 
with that moderation, which useth by patience to suppress boldness." 

Richard Bancroft (1604 — 1611) ; translated from London. 

" A great statesman he was, and grand champion of Church discipline, 
having well hardened the hands of his soul, which was no more than 
needed for him who was to meddle with nettles and briars, and met 
with much opposition. No wonder if those who were silenced by him 
in the church were loud against him in other places. 

" David speaketh of 'poison under men's lips.' This bishop tasted 
plentifully thereof from the mouths of his enemies, till at last (as 
Mithridates) he was so habited to poisons, they became food to him. 
Once a gentleman, coming to visit him, presented him a lyebell, which 
he found pasted on his dore, who, nothing moved thereat, ' Cast it, 
said he, ' to a hundred more which lye here on a heap in my chamber." 
— Fuller's Worthies. 

George Abbot (161 1 — 1633); translated from London, His fine 
portrait, of 1610, represents a " man of very morose manners and sour 
?~' cct which in that time was called gravity" (Clarendon). He owed 



LAMBETH PALACE, 415 

his advanctment to his atrocious flattery of James I. and caused 
terrible scandal to the church by accidentally shooting dead a keeper 
when he^was hunting in Bramshill Park (162 1 ). He lived chiefly at 
Croydon. 

William Laud (1633 — 1644) ; translated from London. The evil 
genius of Charles I., whose foolish religious conceits, mingled with his 
severities in the Star Chamber, contributed more than anything else 
to stir up Puritanism. He was unjustly beheaded by the vengeance of 
the Commons in his seventieth year, and the heroism of his death has 
almost caused the foUies of his life to be forgotten. The portrait is by 
Vandyke. 

William Juxon (1660 — 1663) ; translated from London. As Bishop 
of London he accompanied Charles I. to the scaffold, and received 
his last mysterious word— "Remember." He was consecrated Arch- 
bishop in the Chapel of Henry VII., " where, besides a great con- 
fluence of orthodox clergy, many persons of honour, and gentry, gave 
God thanks for the mercies of that day, as being touched at the sight 
of that good man, whom they esteemed a person of primitive sanctity, 
of great wisdom, piety, learning, patience, charity, and all apostolical 
virtues." — Wood's Athen. Oxon. iv. 819. 

Gilbert Sheldon (1663 — 1678) ; translated from London. Founder of 
the Theatre at Oxford. 

William Savcroft (1678— 1691) ; Dean of St. Paul's. He attended 
Charles II. on his death-bed and was one of the seven bishops sent to 
the Tower for refusing to order the reading of the Declaration of Indul- 
gence in 1688 ; he was suspended, and eventually displaced by Tillotson 
for refusing to take the oaths to William and Mary. 

John Tillotson (1691 — 1694) ; Dean of St. Paul's, the beloved friend of 
Mary II., who was considered to have " taught by his sermons more 
ministers to preach well, and more people to read well, than any man 
since the apostles' days."* Tillotson was the first bishop who wore a 
wig, but a wig was then unpowdered and like natural hair. The 
pt)rtrait is by Mrs. Beale. 

" He was not only the best preacher of the age, but seemed to have 
brought preaching to perfection : his sermons were so well heard and 
liked, and so much read, that all the nation proposed him as a pattern 
and studied to copy after him." — Burnet's Own Times. 

" The sermons of Tillotson were for half a century more read than 
any in our language. They are now bought almost as waste paper, 

* Wilford's " Memorials." 



4i6 WALKS IN LONDON. 

and hardly read at all. Such is the fickleness of religious taste." — 
Hallam, Lit. Hist, of Europe. 

Thomas Tenison (1694 — 1716); translated from Lincoln. As Vicar 
of St. Martin's he attended the Duke of Monmouth upon the scaiFold, 
and as Archbishop he was present at the death-bed of Mary II. 

William Wake (17 16 — 1 737); translated from Lincoln. The last 
archbishop who went to Parliament by water, author of many theologi- 
cal works. 

John Patter {11 n — 1747) ; translated from Oxford. Author of the 
«• Archaeologia Grseca " and other works. 

Thomas Herring (1747 — 1757) ; translated from York. Portrait by 
Hogarth. 

Matthew Hutton{\']^'j—i'j^Z)\ translated from York. Portrait by 
Hudson. 

Thomas Seeker (1758 — 1768) ; translated from Oxford. Portrait by 
Reynolds. Celebrated as a preacher — 

«* When Seeker preaches, or when Murray pleads, 
The church is crowded, and the bar is thronged." 

Frederick Cornwallis { 1 768— 1 783); translated from Lichfield. 
Portrait by Dance.* 

John Moore (1783 — 1805) ; translated from Bangor. 

Charles Manners Sutton ( 1 805— 1828); translated from Norwich. 
Portrait by Beechey. 

William Howley { 1 828— 1 848) ; translated from London. 

John Bird Sumner (1848 — 1 862) ; translated from Chester. Pt-rtrait 
by Mrs. Carpenter. 

Charles Thomas Longley (1862— 1868) ; translated from York. 

Archibald Campbell Tait, translated from London in 1868. 

The Small Dining Room contains portraits of — 

Queen Katharine Parr. 

Cardinal Pole. 

Bishop Burnet, 1689, Chancellor of the Garter. 

• This and several other of these fine portraits are completely ruined by 

** restoration." 



LAMBETH PALACE CHAPEL, 417 

Patrick, Bishop of Ely, 1691. 
Pearce, Bishop of Bangor, 1747. 
Berkeley, the first American Bishop. 
Luther and Caterina Bora ? 

Through the panelled room called Cranmet's Parlour 
we enter — 

The Chapel, which stands upon a Crypt supposed to 
belong to the manor-house built by Archbishop Herbert 
Fitzwalter, c. 1190. Its pillars have been buried nearly up 
to their capitals, to prevent the rising of the river tides 
within its walls. The chapel itself, though greatly modern- 
ised, is older tl an any other part of the palace, having 
been built by Aichbish p Boniface, 1244-70. Its lancet 
windows were found by Laud — " shameful to look at, all 
diversely patched like a })oor beggar's coat," and he filled 
them with stained glass, which he proved that he collected 
from ancient existing fragments, though his insertion of 
" Popish images and pictures made by their like in a mass 
book " was one of the articles in the impeachment against 
him. The glass collected by Laud was entirely smashed 
by the Puritans : the present windows were put in by Arch- 
bishop Howley. 

In this chapel most of the archbishops have been con- 
secrated since the time of Boniface. Archbishop Parker's 
consecration here, Dec. 17, 1559, according to the "duly 
appointed ordinal of the Church of England, " is recorded 
in Parker's Register at Lambeth and in the Library of 
Corpus Christi College at Cambridge, thus falsifying the 
Romanist calumny of his consecration at the Nag's Head 
Tavern in Friday Stieet, Cheapside.* 

• See Timbs's " Curiosities of London." 
VOL. IL E E 



41 8 WALKS IN LOADON. 

Here Parker erected his tomb in his lifetime " by the spot 
where he used to pray," and here he was buried, but his 
tomb was broken up, with every insult that could be shown, by 
Scot, one of the Puritan possessors of Lambeth, while the 
other, Hardyng, not to be outdone, exhumed the Arch- 
bishop's body, sold its leaden coffin, and buried it in a 
dunghill. His remains were found by Sir William Dugdale 
at the Restoration, and honourably reinterred in front of the 
altar, with the epitaph, " Corpus Matthaei Archiepiscopi 
tandem hie quiescit." His tomb, in the ante-chapel, was re- 
erected by Archbishop Sancroft, but the brass inscription 
which encircled it is gone. 

" Parker's apostolical virtues were not incompatible with the love 
of learning : and while he exercised the arduous office, not of govern- 
ing, but of founding the Church of England, he strenuously applied 
himself to the study of the Saxon tongue and of Enghsh antiquities." — 
Gibbon^ Posthumous Works, iii. 566. 

The screen, erected by Laud, was suffered to survive the 
Commonwealth. At the west end of the chapel, high on 
the wall, projects a Gothic confessional, erected by Arch- 
bishop Chicheley. It was formerly approached by seven 
steps. The beautiful western door of the chapel opens into 
the curious Post Room^ which takes its name from the central 
wooden pillar, supposed to have been used as a whipping- 
post for the Lollards. The ornamented flat ceiling which 
we see here is extremely rare. The door at the north-east 
corner, by which the Lollards were brought in, was walled 
up c. 1874. 

Hence we ascend the Lollards' * Tower, built by Chicheley 

• 'ITie name Lollard was used as a term of reproach to the followers ol 
Wickliffe; but was derived from Peter Lollard, a Waldensian pastor in the 
middle of the thirteenth century. 



THE LOLLARDS' PRISON, 



419 



— the lower story of which is now given up by the Arch- 
bishop for the use of Bishops who have no fixei residence 
in London. The winding staircase, of rude slabs of un- 
planed oak, on which the bark in many cases remains, is of 
Chicheley's time. In a room at the top is a trap-door, 
through which as the tide rose prisoners, secretly con- 
demned, could be let down unseen into the river. Hard by 




The Lollards' Prison, Lambeth. 



is the idiXnoMS Lollards' Prison (13 feet long, 12 broad, 8 
high), boarded all over walls, ceiling, and floor. The rough- 
hewn boards bear many fragments of inscriptions which 
show that others besides Lollards were immured here. Some 
of them, especially his motto " Noscete ipsum," are attributed 
to Cranmer. The most legible inscription is " IHS cyppe me 
out of all al compane. Amen." Other boards bear the 
notches cut by prisoners to mark the lapse of time. The 



420 



WALKS IN LONDON. 



eight rings remain to which the prisoners were secured : 
one feels that his companions must have envied the one by 
the window. Above some of the rings the boards are burnt 
with the hot-iron used in torture. The door has a wooden 
lock, and is fastened by the wooden pegs which preceded 
the use of nails ; it is a reUc of Archbishop Sudbury's palace 




From the Lollards' Tower, Lambetn. 



facing the river, which was pulled down by Chicheley. From 
the roof of the chapel there is a noble view up the river, 
with the quaint tourelle of the Lollards' Tower in the fore- 
ground. 

The gardens of Lambeth are vast and delightful. Their 
terrace is called " Clarendon's Walk " from a conference 
which there took place between Laud and the Earl of 



LAMBETH PALACE. 421 

Clarendon. The "summer-house of exquisite workman- 
ship," built by Cranmer, has disappeared. A picturesque 
view may be obtained of Cranmer's Tower, with the Chapel 
and the Lollards* Tower behind it. 

The worldly glory of the Archbishops has paled of 
late. 

** Let us look, for instance, at the list of the officers of Cranmer's 
household. It comprised a steward, treasurer, comptroller, gamators, 
clerk of the kitchen, caterer, clerk of the spicery, yeoman of the 
ewery, bakers, pantlers, yeoman of the horse, yeomen ushers, 
butlers of wine and ale, larderers, squillaries, ushers of the 
hall, porters, ushers of the chamber, daily waiters in the great 
chamber, gentlemen ushers, yeomen of the chambers, marshal, 
groom ushers, almoners, cooks, chandlers, butchers, master of the 
horse, yeoman of the wardrobe, and harbingers. The state observed 
of course corresponded with such a retinue. There were generally 
three tables spread in the hall, and served at the same time, at the 
first of which sat the archbishop, smrounded by peers of the realm, 
privy-councillors, and gentlemen of the greatest quality; at the second, 
called the Almoner's table, sat the chaplains and all the other clerical 
guests below the rank of diocesan bishops and abbots; and at the 
third, or Steward's table, sat all the other gentlemen invited. Cardinal 
Pole had a patent from Philip and Mary to retain one hundred 
ser\ants. . . An interesting passage descriptive of the order observed 
in dining here in Archbishop Parker's time relates — ' In the daily 
eating this was the custom : the steward, with the servants that were 
gentlemen of the better rank, sat down at the table in the haU on the 
right hand ; and the almoners, with the clergy, and the other servants, 
sat on the other side, where there was plenty of all sorts of provision, 
both for eating and drinking. The daily fragments thereof did suffice 
to fill the beUies of a great number of poor hungry people that waited 
at the gate ; and so constant and unfailing was this provision at my 
Lord's table, that whosoever came in either at dinner or supper, being 
not above the degree of a knight, might here be entertained worthy of 
his quality, either at the steward's or almoner's table. And moreover, 
it was the Archbishop's command to all his servants, that all strangers 
should be received and treated with aU manner of civility and respect, 
and that places at the table should be assigned them according to their 
dignity and quality, which abounded much to the praise and commen- 
dation of the Archbishop. The discourse and conversation at meals- 



422 WALKS IN LONDON. 

was void of all brawls and loud talking, and for the most part consisted 
in framing men's manners to religion, or to some other honest and 
beseeming subject. There was a monitor of the hall ; and if it 
happened that any spoke too loud, or concerning things less decent, it 
was presently hushed by one that cried silence. The Archbishop 
loved hospitality, and no man showed it so much, or with better order, 
though he himself was very abstemious.' " — y. Saunders in C. Knight's 
London. 



" The grand hospitalities of Lambeth have perished," as 
Douglas Jerrold observes, " but its charities live." 

A quarter of a mile above Lambeth Bridge is DoultorCs 
Faience and Terra-Cotta Manufactory, built in the Venetian- 
Gothic style : the peculiar red bricks having been made at 
Rowland's Castle in Hampshire and all the ornamental 
parts of the building having been executed in terra-cotta 
by Messrs. Doulton themselves. The chimney shaft for 
carrying off the smoke from the kilns has the effect of a 
campanile. 

On the bank of the river above Lambeth is Vauxhall. 
The name dates from the marriage of Isabella de Fortibus, 
Countess of Albemarle, sister of Archbishop Baldwin, with 
Foukes de Brent, after which the place was called Foukes- 
hall. It was given by the Black Prince to the Church of 
Canterbury. In the old manor-house, then called Copped 
Hall, Arabella Stuart was confined before her removal to 
the Tower. 

Vauxhall Gardens were long a place of popular resort. 
They were laid out in 1661, and were at first known as the 
New Spring Gardens at Fox Hall, to distinguish them from 
the Old Spring Gardens at AVhitehall. They were finally 
closed in 1859, and the site is now built over; but they will 
always be remembered from Sir Roger de Coverley's visit 



VAUXHALL, 



423 



to them in the Spectator,* and from the descriptions 
in Walpole's Letters and Fielding's "Amelia;" and many 
will have pleasant recollections of " the windings and 
turnings in little wildernesses so intricate, that the most 
experienced mothers often lost themselves in looking for 
their daughters." f 

• Mo. 38I8. t Tom Bfona'c " Amuaementfc'^ 



CHAPTER X. 

CHELSEA. 

OPPOSITE Vaiixhall, on the northern shore of the 
Thames, is Milbank Prison, built 1812, containing 
1,550 cells. Its low towers with French conical roofs have 
given it the name of the " English Bastile." The Earls of 
Peterborough lived at Milbank, in Peterborough House, 
which afterwards belonged to the Grosvenors : in 1755, 
Richard, Earl Grosvenor, began to collect here the gallery 
of pictures which was moved to Grosvenor House in 1806. 
Between Milbank Penitentiary and Vauxhall Bridge 
Road, adjoining a space where it is intended that a Roman 
Catholic Cathedral should one day arise, is Archbishop's 
House, the residence of the venerable ecclesiastic who is 
styled " Henry Edward, Cardinal Priest of the Holy Roman 
Church, by the title of St. Andrew and St. Gregory on the 
Coelian Hill, by the grace of God and the lavour of the 
Apostolic See, Archbishop of Westminster." This is the 
centre of the great movement of the Westminster Diocesan 
Education Fund, by which 30,000 poor Roman Catholic j 

children in London are being educated. On the altar of . | 
the private chapel are the mitre and maniple of St. Thomas 
^ Becket. 



CHELSEA HOSPITAL. 425 

Ascending the Grosvenor Road we come to Chelsea, 
which, in the last century, from a country village, has 
become almost a part of London. As regards the etymo- 
logy of its name, formerly written Chelchyth, the opinion 
of Norden is generally followed, who says " that Chelsey 
was so called of the nature of the place, whose strand 
is like the chesel, which the sea casteth up of sand and 
pebble stones." 

We first reach the grounds of Chelsea Hospital, which was 
built on the site of *' Chelsea College," satirically called 
" Controversy College," begun by Matthew Sutcliffe, Dean 
of Exeter, in the time of James I., " to the intent that 
learned men might there have maintenance to answer all 
the adversaries of religion." The Hospital for aged and 
disabled soldiers originated with Sir Stephen Fox, Pay- 
master of the Forces in the reign of Charles II., though 
the King laid the foundation stone, March, 168 1-2. Sir 
Christopher Wren was the architect. The stateliest front 
is that towards the river, with two long projecting wings 
ending on a terrace and enclosing a kind of court, in the 
centre of which is a bronze Statue of Charles 11.^ presented 
by Tobias Rustat, and sometimes attributed to Gibbons, 
who executed the statue of James II. at Whitehall for the 
same patron, mentioned by Evelyn as *' Toby Rustate, page 
of the back-stairs, a very simple, ignorant, but honest and 
loyal creature." He was enabled to erect statues by the 
wealth he accumulated through the patent places he re- 
ceived : the best statue given by him was that of Ciiarles II. 
at Windsor, executed at Bremen. On the frieze 01 the 
cloistered wall which runs along the front of the Hospital 
is the history of the building : — 



426 WALKS IN LONDON, 

"In subsidium et levamen emeritonim senio belloque fractorum, 
condidit Carolus Secundus, auxit Jacobus Secundus, perfecere Guliebnus 
et Maria Rex et Regina, mdcxcii." 

Within this cloister are monuments to Colonel Arthur 
Wellesley Torrens, mortally wounded at Inkerman, 1854; 
to Colonel Seton and his three hundred and fifty-seven 
companions, lost in the wreck of the Birkenhead off the 
Cape of Good Hope, February 26, 1852 ; and to Colonel 
Willoughby Moore and the men lost in the burning of the 
Europa, May 31, 1854. 

In the Wards of the Hospital each pensioner has his own 
little oak chamber (where he may have his own pictures, 
books, &c.), with a door and window opening upon the 
great common passage. There are nurses to every ward. 
The pensioners have their meals (breakfast, dinner, and 
tea) in their own little rooms. They are permitted to go 
where they like, and may be absent for two months with 
leave, receiving an allowance of \od. a day, if absent for 
more than three days. 

The Hall (now used by the pensioners as a club-room, 
with tables for chess, cards, books, newspapers, &c.) is hung 
with tattered colours taken by the British army. On the 
end wall is a vast picture by Verrio and Henry Cooke, given 
by the Earl of Ranelagh, with an equestrian figure of 
Charles II. in the centre. It was the figure of the orange- 
girl in the corner of this picture which gave rise to the 
now exploded tradition that the foundation of the Hospital 
was instigated by Nell Gwynne. On the panels round 
the room the victories of Great Britain are recorded. It 
was in this hall that the great Duke of Wellington lay in 
state, November 10-17, 1852. The French Eagle of "the 



CHELSEA HOSPITAL, 427 

Invincibles," taken by Lord Gough, who screwed off the 
top and put it into his pocket for safety on the battle-field, 
was stolen when the Duke of Wellington lay in state, pro- 
bably by a Frenchman, who had watched the opportunity. 

The Chapel has a picturesqueness of its own, from the 
mass of banners in every stage of decay, often only a few 
threads remaining, which wave from the coved roof, and 
fill the space at once with gloom and colour. They are 
chiefly relics of Indian wars : those taken from Tippoo Saib 
by the 39th battalion are on either side the altar. Many 
of the French banners have their eagles. The painting of 
the apse, representing the Resurrection, is by Sebasiiano 
Ricci. In the chapel is the grave of William Cheselden, 
the famous surgeon and anatomist (1752), celebrated in 
the lines of Pope — 

" To keep these limbs, and to preserve these eyes, 
I'U do what Mead and Cheselden advise." 

** I wondered a little at your quaere, who Cheselden was. It shows that 
the truest merit does not travel so far anyway as on the wings of 
poetry. He is the most noted and most deserving man in the whole 
profession of chirurgery : and has saved the lives of thousands by his 
manner of cutting for the stone." — Letter from Pope to Swift, 

Here also is buried the Rev. WilHam Young (1757), 
author of a Latin dictionary, but more interesting as 
the original of " Parson Adams " in Fielding's " Joseph 
Andrews." * 

Strangers are admitted to the Sunday services here at 
II and 6.30, when the chapel, filled by the veteran 
soldiers (many of whom have a historic interest, faintly 
shown by the medals on their breasts), is an interesting and 
touching sight. There are about 550 pensioners in the 

• See the Life of Edward Young, included in Johnson's " Lives of the Poets." 



428 WALKS IN LONDON. 

Hospital. They wear red coats in summer and blue coats 
in winter, and retain the cocked hats of the last century. 

The Gardens of Chelsea Hospital (open to the public 
from lo A.M. to sunset) somewhat resemble those of the 
old French palaces. A pleasant avenue leads to the wide 
open space towards the river, in the centre of which 
an obelisk was erected in 1849 in memory of the 155 
officers and privates who fell at Chilian wallah. Hence 
the great red front of the Hospital, black under its 
overhanging eaves and high slated roof, with a narrow 
dome-capped portico in the centre, rises, rich in colour, 
beyond the green slopes. The eastern side of the gardens 
was once the famous Ranelagh^ which was opened, 1742, 
as a rival to Vauxhall, and rose to great popularity under the 
patronage of Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire. June 29, 
1744, Walpole writes, "Ranelagh has totally beat Vauxhall. 
Nobody goes anywhere else — everybody goes there." But, 
at the beginning of the present century, the fashion changed ; 
Ranelagh, described in " Humphrey Clinker " as " like the 
enchanted palace of a genii," became quite deserted, and 
it has now altogether ceased to exist. 

" The proprietors of Ranelagh and Vauxhall used to send decoy- 
ducks among the ladies and gentlemen who were walking in the Mall, 
that is, persons attired in the height of fashion, who every now and 
then would exclaim in a very audible tone, ' What charming weather 
for Ranelagh ' or ' for Vauxhall ! ' Ranelagh was a very pleasing 
place of amusement. There persons of inferior rank mingled with the 
highest nobility of Britain. All was so orderly and still that you could 
hear the whisking sound of the ladies' trains, as the immense assembly 
walked round and round the room. If you chose, you might have 
tea, which was served up in the neatest equipage possible. The price 
of admission was half-a-crown. People generally went to Ranelagh 
between nine and ten o'clock." — Rogers's Table Talk. 

Anothei great resort near this was the " Old Chelsea 



I 



CHEYNE WALK. 425 

Bun House," a queer picturesque old house in Jew's Row, 
which had a marvellous popularity at all times, but espe- 
cially on Good Friday, when as many as fifty thousand 
persons came here to buy buns, and two hundred and forty 
thousand buns were sold. George II. and Caroline of 
Anspach were fond of driving down to fetch their own 
buns, and the practice was continued by George III. and 
.Queen Charlotte, which set the fashion with every one else. 
In 1839 the proprietors thought they would do a fine thing, 
and rebuilt the old house : they killed the hen that laid the 
golden eggs, no one came any more. 

The Botanic Garden facing the river is the oldest garden 
of the kind in existence in England, Gerard's garden 
in Holborn and Tradescant's garden at Lambeth having 
perished. It was leased to the Apothecaries' Company, who 
still possess it, by Lord Cheyne in 1673, and was finally 
made over to them by Sir Hans Sloane in 1722. Evelyn 
used to walk in *' the Apothecaries' garden of simples at 
Chelsea," and admire, " besides many rare annuals, the tree 
bearing Jesuit's bark, which has done such wonders in 
quartan agues." The Statue of Sir Hans Sloane was erected 
in 1733. Near it is one of the picturesque cedars planted 
in 1683 ; its companion was blown down in 1845. 

Fronting the river is the pretty water-side terrace called 
Cheyne Walk (from the Cheynes, once lords of the manor). 
Though much altered since the river has been thrust back 
by the Embankment, this, more than any place outside 
Hampton Court, recalls, in the brick houses and rows of 
trees like those in the Dutch towns, the time of William 
and Mary. The lower part of the terrace has a row of 
somewhat stately houses, bow-windowed, balconied, and 



430 WALKS IN LONDON, 

possessing old iron gates with pillars and pine-apples : in 
the upper part the line of ancient shops ends at the old 
church, while beyond the broad river are the yet open 
fields of Battersea. While the Thames was yet the aristo- 
cratic highway, Chelsea was the most convenient of country 
residences, and many of the great nobles had houses here. 
Elizabeth annually celebrated the anniversary of her coro- 
nation by coming in her barge to dine here with the Earl> 
of Effingham, Lord High Admiral, the only person who 
had sufficient influence with her to make her go to 
bed in her last illness. There was a quadrangular royal 
manor-house here enclosing a courtyard (near where the 
pier now stands) which was long inhabited by illustrious 
relations of the sovereign. It was settled upon Queen 
Catherine Parr by Henry VHI. at her marriage, and to it 
she retired at his death. Hither her fourth husband, Sir 
Thomas Seymour, came secretly to woo her (being still only 
in her 35th year) within two months of the King's death, and 
she, fearing the displeasure of Edward VI., and still more 
that of the Protector Somerset and his proud wife, wrote 
hence to beg him to " come without suspect," and " I pray 
you let me have knowledge over-night at what hour ye will 
come, that your portress may wait at the gate to the fields 
for you."* At the time of the Queen's fourth marriage, her 
stepdaughter, the Princess Elizabeth, then only thirteen, 
was residing with her at Chelsea, and here occurred those 
probably innocent familiarities which were afterwards made 
one of the articles in the impeachment of Seymour. After 
Catherine's death at Sudeley Casde in 1548, the old royal 
manor of Chelsea appears to have been given to the Duke 

• Letters of " Kateryn the Quene." 



CHEYNE WALK, 



431 



of Northumberland, father-in-law of Lady Jane Grey (whence 
his widow's burial in the church), and then to another Queen, 
** Anna, the daughter of Cleves," as she signed herself, who 
died at Chelsea, July 10, 1557, and was taken thence to be 
buried in Westminster Abbey with the splendour denied in 
her lifetime. Elizabeth afterwards granted the manor to the 
widowed Anne, Duchess of Somerset, aunt of Edward VI., 
who made it her residence. It subsequently passed through 
a number of illustrious hands, till it came to Charles, 
Viscount Cheyne {pb, 1698).* It was sold in 17 12 to Sir 
Hans Sloane, from whom it passed to Lord Cadogan of 
Oakley. These later possessors are commemorated in 
Cheyne Walk, Hans and Cadogan Places, and Sloane 
Street and Oakley Crescent. Chelsea gives a title to the 
eldest son of Earl Cadogan. 

The Bishops of Winchester had a house in Cheyne Walk, 
after the ruin of their palace in Southwark, and they resided 
there from 1663 to 1820. In Cheyne Walk also were the 
Coffee House and Museum of Salter who had been Sir 
Hans Sloane's valet — " Don Saltero " described by Steele 
in the Tatler (No. 34). Pennant records that when he 
was a boy at Chelsea, his father used to take him to Don 
Saltero's, and there he used to see Richard Cromwell — " a 
little and very neat old man, with a placid countenance." 

Beyond the church was an ancient manor-house with a 
gateway and large gardens to the river, known in its later 
existence as " Beaufort House." In this rural retirement, 
from which he could easily reach London in his barge, 
Sir Thomas More lived after his resignation of the Chan- 

• The beautiful Duchess of iMazarin died 1699 in a house which belonged to 
Lord Cheyne in Cheyne Walk, 



432 WALKS IN LONDON, 

cellorship in 1532. Erasmus, who frequently visited him, 
and who probably wrote here his " Moria? Encomium," of 
which the preface is dated "Ex rure, 1532," describes 
More's family life : 

«* There he converses with his wife, his son, his daughter-in-law, 
his three daughters * and their husbands, with eleven grandchildren. 
There is no man living so affectionate to his children as he, and he 
loveth his old wife as well as if she were a young maid. Such is the 
excellence of his temper, that whatsoever happeneth that cannot be 
helped, he loveth it as if nothing could have happened more happily. 
You would say there was in that place Plato's academy ; but I do 
his house an injury in comparing it to Plato's academy, where there 
were only disputations of numbers and geometrical figures, and some- 
times of moral virtues. I should rather call his house a school or 
university of Christian Religion ; for though there is none therein but 
readeth or studieth the Uberal sciences, their special care is piety 
and virtue ; there is no quarrelling or intemperate words heard ; none 
seem idle ; that worthy gentleman doth not govern with proud and 
lofty words, but with well-timed and courteous benevolence ; every- 
body performeth his duty, yet there is always alacrity ; neither is sober 
mirth anything wanting." 

Here Linacre and Colet were frequent guests. The " II 
Moro " of Ellis Hey wood, dedicated to Cardinal Pole, 1556, 
gives a dissertation, on the sources of happiness, supposed to 
have been held by six learned men in the garden here. 

" The place was wonderfully charming, both from the advantages of 
its site — for from one part almost the whole of the noble city of 
London was visible, and from another, the beautiful Thames, with the 
green meadows and wooded heights surrounding it — and also for its 
own beauty, for it was crowned with an almost perpetual verdure, it 
had flowering shrubs, and the branches of fruit-trees, so beautifully 
interwoven, that it was as if Nature* herself had woven a living 
tapestry." 

It was here that, when a beggar-woman who had lost her 
little dog came to complain that it was in the keeping of 

• Margaret Roper, Elizabeth Dauncy, and Cecilia Heron. 



SIR THOMAS MORE'S HOUSE, 433 

Lady More — who had taken it in and refused to give it up 
— Sir Thomas sent for his lady with the little dog, and, 
" because she was the worthier person, caused her to stand 
at the upper end of the hall, and the beggar at the lower 
end, and saying that he sat there to do everyone justice, he 
bade each of them call the dog ; which when they did, the 
dog went presently to the beggar, forsaking my lady. When 
he saw this he bade my lady be contented, for it was none 
of hers," and she, repining, agreed with the beggar -for a 
piece of gold, " which would well have bought three dogs." 
Here Holbein remained for three years as More's guest, 
employed on the portraits of his family and friends, and 
on the numerous sketches which were discovered amongst 
the royal collections and arranged by Queen Caroline. 
Here he was introduced by Sir Thomas to the notice of 
Henry VHI. 

" And for the pleasure he (Henry VIII.) took in his (More's) com- 
pany would his grace sometimes come home to his house in Chelsea to 
be merry with him, whither, on a time unlooked for, he came to dinner, 
and after dinner, in a fair garden of his, walked with him by the space 
of an hour, holding his arm about his neck." — Roper's Life of More. 

The terrace of the garden towards the river was the 
scene of More's adventure with the madman. 

" It happened one time, that a Tom of Bedlam came up to him, and 
had a mind to have thrown him from the battlements, saying, ' Leap, 
Tom, leap.' The chancellour was in his gowne, and besides ancient, 
and not able to struggle with such a strong fellowe. My Lord had a 
little (log with him, Sayd he, * Let us first throwe the dog downe, and 
see what sport that will be ; ' so the dog was throwne over. • This is 
very fine sport,' sayd my Lord, 'fetch him up, and try once more;' 
while the madman was goeing downe, my Lord fastened the dore, and 
called for help, but ever after kept the dore shutt." — Aubrey's Lives, 

VOL. IL F F 



434 WALKS IN LONDON. 

Hard by, in Chelsea, Sir Thomas hired a house for many 
aged people, whom he daily relieved, and it was his daughter 
Margaret Roper's charge to see that they wanted for no- 
thing.* 

After the attainder of Sir Thomas More, his house at 
Chelsea was granted by Henry VHI. to Sir William Paulet, 
afterwards Marquis of Winchester. On the death of his 
widow in 15S6 it passed to her daughter by Sir R. Sackville, 
Anne, Lady Dacre. She bequeathed it to the great Lord 
Burleigh, whose son Robert rebuilt or altered it and eventu- 
ally sold it to the Earl of Lincoln, whose daughter married 
Sir Arthur Gorges. He conveyed the house to Cranfield, 
Earl of Middlesex, who sold it in 1625 to Charles 1. This 
king granted it to George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham. 
During the Commonwealth it was inhabited by John Lisle, 
the regicide, and Sir Bulstrode Whitelock, the historian. 
It was sold to pay the debts of the second Duke of Buck- 
ingham, and passed into the hands of Digby, Earl of Bristol. 
His widow sold it to Henry, Duke of Beaufort, who came 
to inhabit it in 1662, when he left Beaufort Buildings in the 
Strand, and died in 1699, and from his descendants it was 
purchased by Sir Hans Sloane, who pulled it down in 
1740. 

Chelsea Old Church (St. Luke) bears evidence of the 
various dates at which it has been built and altered from 
the fourteenth to the seventeenth centuries. The brick 
tower is of 1662-4. At the south-east angle of the church- 
yard is the quaint tomb of Sir Hans Sloane (1753), the 
great physician, who attended Queen Anne upon her death- 
bed, and was created a baronet by George I., being the first 

• Cresacre's " Life of More." 



CHELSEA OLD CHURCH, 435 

physician who attained that honour. He collected in the 
neighbouring manor-house the books, medals, and objects 
of Natural History which, purchased after his death, became 
the foundation of the British Museum. The monument 
erected by his two daughters, '* Sarah Stanley and Eliza 
Cadogan," is an urn entwined with serpents, under a 
canopy. The charity with which Sir Hans Sloane made 
himself " the physician of the poor " caused his funeral 
here to be attended by vast multitudes of his grateful 
patients : the funeral sermon was preached by Zachary 
Pearce. 

The interior of Chelsea Church retains more of an old- 
world look than any other in London. It has never been 
" restored," and the monuments with which it is covered 
give it a wonderful amount of human interest. It is peopled 
with associations. The aisles are the same round which 
Sir Thomas More used to carry the cross at the head of 
the church processions, and the choir is that in which he 
chanted every Sunday in a surplice, and having provoked 
the Duke of Norfolk's remonstrance, " God's body, my 
Lord Chancellor, what a parish clerk ! — you dishonour the 
king and his olhce," replied, *' Nay your grace may not 
think I dishonour my prince in serving his God and mine." 
We may see here the ex-Chancellor on the day after he had 
resigned the great seal of England, who " had carried that 
dignity with great temper and lost it with great joy,"* 
breaking the news to his wife, to whose pew one of his 
gendemen had been in the habit of going after mass and 
saying " his lordship is gone," by going up to her pew door 
himself and saying, " May it please your ladyship, my lord- 

• Burnet. 



436 WALKS IN LONDON, 

ship is gone," which she at first imagined to be one of his 
jests, but when he sadly affirmed it to be true, broke out 
with, "Tilly vally, what will you do, Mr. More, will you 
sit and make goslings in the ashes ? it is better to rule than 
to be ruled." 

It was here also that, on the morning of his trial at 
Lambeth, Sir Thomas More was confessed and received the 
sacrament, and "whereas ever at other times, before he 
parted from his wife and children, they used to bring him 
to his boat, and he there, kissing them, bade them farewell ; 
he at this time suffered none of them to follow him forth of 
his gate, but pulled the wicket after him, and with a heavy 
heart, as by his countenance appeared, he took boat with 
his son Roper and their men." 

At the west end of the church hang the tattered remains 
of the banners given by Queen Charlotte to her own 
regiment of volunteers, 1804, "at the time when the country 
was threatened by an inveterate enemy," and which were 
" deposited here by them as a memorial of her most gracious 
favour to the inhabitants of the parish for their zeal, 
loyalty, and patriotism." In the clock-room is a bell given 
by the Hon. William Ashbumham, who, in 1679, lost his 
way at night and fell into the river in the dark. Not 
knowing where he was, he gave himself up as lost, but 
just then Chelsea Church clock struck nine close by. In 
gratitude he presented this bell to the church, inscribed, 
"The Honourable William Ashburnham, Esquire, cofferer 
to his Majestie's Household, 1679," and he left a sum of 
money for ringing it every evening at nine o'clock from 
Michaelmas to Lady Day, a custom which was observed 
till 1825. 



CHELSEA OLD CHURCH, 



437 



At the entrance of the south aisle are a curious lectern and 
bookcase, containing the Bible, the Homilies, and Foxe's 
Book of Martyrs, huge volumes heavily bound in leather 
with massive clasps, chained to the desk, where they may 
be read. Beyond, against the south wall, resplendent in 




The Chained Books. Chelsea. 



coloured marbles, stands the gorgeous Corinthian monu- 
ment of Gregory, Lord Dacre, 1594, and Anne, Lady Dacre, 
1595. The tomb bears his effigy in armour and hers in a 
long cloak ; a baby has its own tiny tomb at the side. This 
Lady Dacre was the foundress of " Emanuel College " — 
Lady Dacre's Almshouses — at Westminster. Opposite is 



438 WALKS IN LONDON, 

the tomb of " that generous and wealthy gentleman, Arthur 
Gorges," 1668, with the epitaph — 

** Here sleepes and feeles no pressure of the stone, 
He, that had all the Gorges soules in one. 
Here the ingenious valiant Arthur lies 
To be bewail'd by marble and our eyes 
By most beloved, but Love cannot retrieve 
Dead friends, has power to kill not make alive. 
Let him rest free from envy, as from paine. 
When all the Gorges rise heele rise againe 
This last retiring rome his own dothe call ; 
Who after death has that and Heaven has all. 
Live Arthur by the spirit of thy fame, 
Chelsey itself must dy before thy name." 

The east end of the south aisle is the chapel built by Sir 
Thomas More in 1520.* It contains the monument (florid 
but excellent of the period) of Sir Robert Stanley, 1632, 
second son of William, sixth Earl of Derby. In front is 
his characteristic bust, and at the sides are busts of his 
children Ferdinando and Henrietta Maria ; the little girl 
wears a necklace with the Eagle and Child, the badge of 
the Stanleys. 

" To say a Stanley lies here, that alone 
Were epitaph enough ; noe brass, noe stone, 
Noe glorious tombe, noe monumental hearse, 
Noe guilded trophy, or lamp labour'd verse 
Can dignifie this grave or sett it forth 
Like the immortal fame of his owne worth. 
Then Reader, fixe not here, but quitt this roome 
And fly to Abram's bossome, there's his tombe ; 
There rests his soule, and for his other parts, 
They are imbalm'd and lodg'd in good men's harts. 
A brauer monument of stone or lyme, 
Noe art can rayse, for this shall outlast tyme." 

• It continued t'* belong to Beaufort Housh. 



CHELSEA OLD CHURCH, 439 

Close by, battered and worn, and robbed of half its deco- 
rations, is the deeply interesting tomb of the unhappy Jane 
Dudley, Duchess of Northumberland (1555), mother-in-law 
of Lady Jane Grey. After the brief reign of Lady Jane 
was over, the Duchess saw her husband and her son Lord 
Guildford Dudley beheaded on Tower Hill, her son John 
die in the Tower, and the confiscation of all her property: 
but she survived these calamities, and, having borne all her 
trials quietly with great wisdom and prudence, she lived to 
see the restoration of her house. Her son Ambrose was 
reinstated in the Earldom of Warwick, and her son Robert, 
the favourite of Queen Elizabeth, was created Earl of 
Leicester. Her will is extant and curious. 

" My will is earnestly and eflfectually, that little solemnitie be made 
for me, for I had ever have a thousand-foldes my debts to be paid, 
and the poor to be given imto, than any pomp to be showed upon my 
wretched carkes : therefore to the worms Avill I go, as I have before 
written in all points, as you will answer y* before God. And if you 
breke any one jot of it, your wills hereafter may chance to be as well 
broken. After I am departed from this worlde, let me be wonde up 
in a sheet, and put into a coffin of woode, and so layde in the ground 
with such funeralls as parteyneth to the burial of a corse. I will at 
my years mynde have such divyne service as myne executors think fit ; 
nor, in no wise to let me be opened after I am dead. I have not lived 
to be very bold afore women, much more wolde I be lothe to come into 
the hands of any lyving man, be he physician or surgeon." * 

The directions of the Duchess as to the simplicity of her 
funeral were utterly disregarded by her family, for with heralds 
and torches she was borne with the utmost magnificence 
through Chelsea, her waxen effigy being exposed upon her 
coffin, as at the royal funerals at Westminster. In the 
recess of the tomb are the arms of the Duchess encircled by 

• The Duchess bequeathed to the Duchess of Alva, lady in waiting to Queen 
Marj , her " green parrot, having nothing else worthy of her." 



440 WALKS IN LONDON. 

the Garter. The brass representing the Duke and his sons 
— including the husbands of Jane Grey and Amy Robsart 
— is torn away, but that of the Duchess and her daughters 
remains.* She wears a robe, once enamelled, now painted, 
with shield of arms. Of the daughters, the eldest, Mary, 
was mother of Sir Philip Sidney; the second, Catherine, 
married the Earl of Huntingdon, grandson of Margaret 
Plantagenet, Countess of Salisbury. 

** Here lyeth ye right noble and excellent prynces Lady Jane 
Guyldeford, late Duches of Northumberland, daughter and sole heyre 
unto ye right honorable S"" Edward Guyldeford, Knight, Lord 
Wardeyn of ye fyve portes, ye which S"^ Edward was sonne to ye right 
honorable S'' Richard Guyldeford, sometymes knight and companion 
of ye most noble order of ye garter ; and the said Duches was wyfe to 
the right high and mighty prince John Dudley, late Duke of Northum- 
berland, by whom she had yssew 13 children, that is to wete 8 sonnes 
and 5 daughters ; and after she had lived yeres 46, she departed this 
transitory world at her manor of Chelse ye 22 daye of January in ye 
second yere of ye reigne of our sovereyne Lady Queue Mary the first, 
and in Ano. 1555 ; on whose soule Jesu have mercy." 

The altar-tomb which stood beneath the canopy is 
destroyed, and a little tablet which was affixed to it is let 
into the wall above; it commemorates a second time Cathe- 
rine^ wife of the Earl of Huntingdon, and daughter of John 
Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, 1620. 

Entering the chancel we come to the tomb which Sir 
Thomas More erected in his lifetime (1532) to his own 
memory and that of his two wives. Hither he removed the 
remains of his first wife, Joan, the mother of his children, 
the wife whom he married, " though his affection most 
served him to her second sister," because he thought " it 
would be a grief and some blemish to the eldest to have 

• This precious relic is disgracefully ill-cared for. 



CHELSEA OLD CHURCH, 



441 



her younger sister preferred before her." * Here his second 
wife — a widow, Mrs. AHce Middleton, of whom lie was 
wont to say that she was " nee bella, nee puella '' — was 
buried. Hither also, according to Aubrey, Weaver, and 
Anthony a Wood, More's own headless body was removed 




The More Tomb, Chelsea. 



from St. Peter's Chapel in the Tower, where it was first 
interred ; but neither his son-in-law Roper, nor his great 
grandson C. More, who wrote his life, mentions the fact, 
which is rendered improbable by Margaret Roper having 
previously moved Bishop Fisher's body from Allhallows, 

* Cresacre More's " Life of Sir T. More." 



443 WALKS IN LONDON. 

Barking, that it might rest with his friend in the Tower 
Chapel* The head of Sir Thomas More is preserved in 
St. Dunstan's Church at Canterbury by the tomb of his 
best-beloved daughter Margaret Roper. 

The monument was restored in the reign of Charles I. 
(by Sir Thomas Lawrence of Chelsea), and again in 1833. 
On both occasions the words " hereticisque " were inten- 
tionally omitted : there is a blank space where they should 
have appeared. Above is the crest of Sir T. More — a 
moor's head — and his own arms with those of his two wives. 
The Latin epitaph is Sir Thomas's biography of himself — 

" Thomas More, of the city of London, was of an honourable, though 
not a noble family, and possessed considerable literary attainments. 
After having, as a young man, practised for some years at the bar, and 
served as sheriff for his native city, he was summoned to the palace 
and made a member of the Privy Council by the invincible king 
Henry VIII. (who received the distinction unattained by any other 
sovereign, of being justly called Defender of the Faith, which he had 
supported both with his sword and pen). He was then made a knight 
and vice-treasurer, and through excessive royal favour was created 
chancellor, first of the Duchy of Lancaster, and afterwards of England. 
In the mean time, he had been returned to serve in Parliament, and 
was besides frequently appointed ambassador by his Majesty. The 
last time he filled this high office was at Cambray, where he had for a 
colleague, as chief of legation, Tunstall, Bishop of London, soon after- 
wards of Durham, a man scarcely excelled by any of his contempora- 
ries in learning, prudence, and moral worth ; at this place he was pre- 
sent at the assembly of the most powerful monarchs of Christendom, 
and beheld with pleasure the renewal of ancient treaties, and the 
restoration of a long-wished-for peace to the world. ' Grant, O ye 
Gods, that this peace may be eternal ! ' 

*' In this round of duties and honours he acquired the esteem of the 
best of princes, the nobility and people, and was dreaded only by 
thieves and murderers (and heretics). f At length his father, Sir John 

* See Doyne C. Bell's " Notices of Historic Persons buried in St. Peter ad 
Vincula." 

t Fuller says that More had a tree in bis garden at Chelsea which he called 
"the tree of truth," and that he used to bind heretics to it to be scourged. 



CHELSEA OLD CHURCH, 443 

More, was nominated by the king a member of the Privy Council. He 
was of a mild, harmless, gentle, merciful, and just disposition, and was 
in excellent health, though an old man. When he had seen his son 
Chancellor of England, he felt that his life had been sufficiently pro- 
longed, and passed gladly from earth to heaven. 

" At his death, the son, who in his father's lifetime was esteemed 
a young man both by himself and others, deeply lamenting his 
father's loss, and seeing four children and eleven grandchildren 
around him, began to feel the pressure of years. Shortly after- 
wards this feeling was increased by a pulmonary affection, which 
he regarded as the sure forerunner of old age. Therefore, wearied of 
worldly enjoyments, he obtained permission from the best of princes 
to resign his dignities, that he might spend the closing years of 
his life free from care, which he had always desired, and that, with- 
drawing his mind from the occupations of this world, he might devote 
himself to the contemplation of immortality. As a constant reminder 
of the inevitable approach of death, he has prepared this vault, whither 
he has removed the remains of his first wife. Good Reader, I beseech 
thee, that thy pious prayers may attend me while living, and follow me 
when dead, that I may not have done this in vain, nor dread with 
trembling the approach of death, but willingly undergo it for Christ's 
sake, and that death to me may not be reaUy death, but rather the 
door of a more blessed life." 

Beneath are the lines — 

" Chara Thomaj jacet hie Joanna uxorula Mori, 

Qui tumulum Aliciae hunc destino, quique mihi. 
Una mihi dedit hoc conjuncta wentibus annis, 

Me vocet ut puer et trina puella patrem. 
Altera privignis (quae gloria rara Novercse est) 

Tam pia, quam gratis, vox fuit ulla suis. 
Altera sic mecum vixit, sic altera vivit, 

Charior incertum est, quae sit an ilia fuit. 
O simul, O juncti poteramus vivere nos tres, 

Quam bene, si fatum religioque sinant. 
At societ tumulus, societ nos, obsecro, coelum ! 

Sic mors, non potuit quod dare vita, dabit." 

A tablet on the wall above commemorates Elizabetfi 
May erne, 1653, daughter of Sir Theodore Mayeme, the 
famous physician, and wife of Peter de Caumont, Marquis 



444 WALKS IN LONDON. 

de Montpelier, a French Protestant who fled to England 
from the Huguenot persecutions. 

Opposite the More monument is an altar-tomb of the 
Bray family, who held the manor in the reign of Henry VII., 
which formerly bore the inscription — " Pray for the soul of 
Edmund Bray, knight, Lord Bray, cosin and heire to Sir 
Reginald Bray, Knight of the Garter."* His brother 
Reginald Bray lies with him. On the same wall is the 
well-executed little monument of Thomas Hufigerford 
(1581), distinguished at Musselburgh Field, so often 
alluded to in the charming descriptions of this old church 
in the " Hillyers and Burtons," by Henry Kingsley, 
whose father became Rector of Chelsea in 1836, and who 
vividly portrays in his book the reminiscences of his own 
childhood. 

A sort of triumphal arch, forming the entrance to the 
north aisle, is the tomb of Richard Gervoise\ Sheriff of 
London, 1557, one of an ancient family who resided in the 
precincts of Chelsea Palace. 

The east end of the north aisle is the chapel of the 
Lawrence family, from whom Lawrence Street, Chelsea, 
takes its name. The most conspicuous monument is that 
of Mrs. Coivilly 1631, with her half figure rising from the 
tomb in her winding-sheet ; but far more worth notice is the 
small tomb of her father, Thomas Lawrence, 1593, with a 
beautifully finished little family group kneeling on cushions, 
the dead babies lying beside them. 

Against the north wall, in a kind of marble cave, on a 
black sarcophagus, reclines the figure of Lady Jane Cheynef 
1669, eldest daughter of William Cavendish, Duke of New- 

• Weaver's " Funeral Monuments." 



CHELSEA OLD CHURCH. 445 

castle, and his comical Duchess.* Beneath is an inscription 
to her husband Charles Cheyne, " whom she never grieved 
but in her death." The statue of Lady Jane is attributed to 
Bernini^ and the drapery is characteristic of his style, though 
the impossible hand proves an inferior master. 

" Four hundred years of memory are crowded into this dark old 
church, and the flood of change beats round the walls, and shakes the 
door in vain, but never enters. The dead stand thick together there, 
as if to make a brave resistance to the moving v7orld outside, which 
jars upon their slumber. It is a church of the dead. I cannot fancy 
anyone being married in that church — its air would chill the boldest 
bride that ever walked to the altar. No ; it is a place for old people 
to creep into and pray, until their prayers are answered, and they sleep 
with the rest." — H. Kingsley. 

Amongst those who are buried here without monuments 
are Mrs, Fletcher^ widow of the Bishop of London, and 
mother of the dramatic poet ; Magdalen^ Lady Herbert^ 
mother of Lord Herbert of Cherbury and George Herbert 
the poet, *'who gave rare testimonies of an incomparable 
piety to God, and love to her children," t whose funeral 
sermon was preached here by Dr. Donne in the presence of 
Izaak Walton ; Thomas Shadwell^ the poet, the MacFlecknoe 
of Dryden ; Mrs. Mary Astell^ i73i» a popular religious 
writer of her time; and Boyer, author of the well-known 
French Dictionary and a History of Queen Anne. In the 
King's Road Cemetery, which was given to the parish by 
Sir Hans Sloane, is the tomb of John Baptist Cipriani^ the 
artist (1785). 

Against the south wall of the church on the exterior is 
the monument oi Dr. Chamberlayne (1703), author of the 
" Angliae Notitia." His strange epitaph records that " he 

• See the account of her in the chapter on "Westminster Abbey, 
t See Walton's " Lives." 



446 WALKS IN LONDON, 

was so studious of good to all men, and especially to pos- 
terity, that he ordered some of his books, covered with wax, 
to be buried with him, which may be of use in time to 
come." More extraordinary is the adjoining epitaph of his 
daughter Anne Spragg (1691), which narrates how, "having 
long declined marriage, and aspiring to great achievements, 
unusual to her age and sex, she, on the 30th of June, 1690, 
on board a fire-ship, in man's clothing — as a second Pallas, 
chaste and fearless — fought valiantly for six hours against 
the French, under the command of her brother." 

Lindsey House (facing the river) was built by Sir Chris- 
topher Wren in 1674 for Robert, Earl of Lindsey, Lord 
Great Chamberlain, on the site of the house of Sir Theodore 
Mayeme {pb. 1655), who was physician to Henri IV. and 
Louis XI n. of France, and afterwards to James I. and 
Charles I. of England. Lord Lindsey had previously 
inhabited Lindsey House in Lincoln's Inn Fields. His 
descendant, the Duke of Ancaster, sold the house in 17 51 
to Count Zinzendorf, who lived there, while presiding over 
the Moravian community which he had established in 
Chelsea. The next house was at one time inhabited by 
John Martin, by whom there are remains of a fresco on the 
garden wall. 

Zinzendorf bought some of the land belonging to Beau- 
fort House for a burial-ground. In King's Road (No. 381) 
is the entrance of a green enclosure, containing his Chapel, 
a brick building with broad overhanging eaves, occupying 
the site of Sir Thomas More's stables : it is still the 
proper<-y of the Moravians. Against the outer wall is a 
monument to " Christopher Renatus, Count of Zinzendorf 
and Pollendorff, born Dec. 19, 1727, departed May 28, 



CHEYNE ROW, 447 

1732," the only son of the founder of the Moravians, 
who died suddenly in Westminster Abbey. Close by is 
the monument of Henry LV. of Reuss (18 16), his wife 
Maria Justina, and Henry LXXIU. of Reuss. Some brick 
walls which belonged to Sir Thomas More's house may still 
be seen to the south of the burial-ground. 

In No. 119 Cheyne Walk, a humble two-storied brick 
house facing the river and boats, the great painter J. M. W. 
Turner spent his latter days, shutting up his house in 
Queen Anne Street, that he might give himself up to the 
enjoyment of the soft effects upon the still reaches of the 
Thames. He lived here as Mr. Booth, but the Chelsea 
boys gave him the name of " Admiral Booth " or " Puggy 
Booth." When he knocked at the door of this house and 
wished to engage the lodgings, the landlady asked him for 
references — " References ! " stormed the irascible old man ; 
"these, Ma'am, are my references," and he thrust a bundle 
of bank-notes in her face. " Well, Sir, but what is your 
name ? " " Name, Ma'am, may I ask what is your name, 
Ma'am ?" *' Oh I am Mrs. Booth." "Well then. Ma'am, 
I am Mr. Booth.'' The still-existing balcony of the house 
was erected by Turner: he died here, Dec. 19, 1851. 

The old-fashioned terrace of Cheyne Row will always be 
interesting as having been the abode of the venerable 
historian, essayist, and philosopher, Thomas Carlyle. His 
house and its pictures have been well described in " Cele- 
brities at Home," 1876, with his library, ''perhaps the 
smallest, saving mere books of reference, that ever belonged 
to a great man of letters— explained by his magnificent 
memory." 

Near the end of Church Street, Chelsea, was the famous 



448 WALKS IN LONDON, 

porcelain manufactory, which existed as early as 1698, but 
was at its zenith 1750-63. In 1764 it was removed to 
Derby, and the ware was then called Derby-Chelsea. Mr. 
De Morgan has lately established a manufactory in Chelsea, 
in imitation of the old Spanish lustre-ware. 

Half a mile beyond Chelsea were Cremome Gardens, 
long a place of public amusement, formerly belonging to 
Cremorne House. 

The name of Peter's Eye or Island still lingers in that 
of Battersea on the opposite side of the river, which 
was part of the ancient patrimony of St. Peter's Abbey 
at Westminster. It was formerly famous for its asparagus 
beds. 

Crossing Battersea Bridge {\d^ and turning to the right, 
we reach the Church {of St. Mary), rebuilt at the end of 
the last century and very ugly. It is, however, worth while 
to enter it and ascend to the northern gallery, to visit a 
monument by Rouhiliac to Henry St. John, Lord Boling- 
broke, adored by Pope — whom he attended on his death- 
bed, and who considered him the first writer, as well as the 
greatest man, of his age ; hated by Walpole as a political 
rival ; lauded by Swift and Smollett ; despised as " a 
scoundrel and a coward " by Dr. Johnson. His youth had 
been so wild that his father's congratulation when he was 
created a Viscount was, "Ah, Harry, I ever said you 
would be hanged ; but now I find you will be beheadedJ*^ 
In 17 15 he was impeached for high treason by the Whigs, 
and fled to the Court of Prince Charles Stuart, where he 
accepted the post of Secretary, which led in England to 
his attainder. His estates were restored in 1723, but his 
political career was closed, and the last ten years of his 



BATTERSEA, 449 

life were spent in retirement at Battersea manor-house. His 

epitaph tells his story. 

" Here lies Henry St. John, in the reign of Queen Anne, Secretary 
of War, Secretary of State, and Viscount Bolingbroke ; in the days of 
George I. and George II. something more and better. His attachment 
to Queen Anne exposed him to a long and severe persecution ; he bore 
it with firmness of mind. He passed the latter part of his life at home, 
the enemy of no national party, the friend of no faction ; distinguished 
(under the cloud of proscription which had not been entirely taken 
off) by zeal to maintain the liberty, and to restore the ancient pros- 
perity of Great Britain." 

Mary Clara des Champs de Maurily, Viscountess Boling- 
broke, is commemorated on the same monument, and there 
are many other St. John tombs in the church. In the 
south gallery is the monument of Sir Edward Wynter^ 
1685-6, with a relief portraying the two principal feats of 
this hero, which are thus recorded in his long epitaph — 

" Alone, unarm'd, a tyger he opprest, 
And crush'd to death ye monster of a beast ; 
Twice twenty mounted Moors he overthrew. 
Singly on foot, some wounded, some he slew, 
Dispers'd ye rest. — ^What more could Samson doe ? ** 

The repaired east window is especially interesting as 
having been given by Sir Thomas Boleyn, father of Queen 
Anne.* It contains the portraits of Margaret Beaufort, 
mother of Henry VII., Henry VIII, , and Elizabeth. In 
the crypt beneath the church the coffin of Bolingbroke and 
others of its illustrious dead were shown till lately. They 
are now (1877) put under ground. From the churchyard, 
girt on two sides by the lapping river, we may admire the 
^xoXm^sQ^Q Luff Barges, sometimes called Clipper Barges., 

• His great-granddaughter Anne Leighton married Sir John St. John of 
Battersea. 

VOL. II. G G 



450 WALKS IN LONDON. 

of a smaller class than the ordinary square barges of the 
Thames, and provided with a foresail only. 

A mill and miller's house near the river (reached by 
the second gateway from the church in the direction of 
the bridge) contain all that remains of the old manor- 
house where Bolingbroke died. 

Battersea Park, formed in 1856-57, faces Chelsea 
Hospital. It is pretty in summer, and its sub-tropical 
garden, of four acres, is beautiful. Two bridges, Albert 
Bridge and New Chelsea Bridge, connect it with the oppo- 
site shore. It was in Battersea Fields that the Duke of 
Wellington fought a duel with the Earl of Winchilsea in 
1829. 

Maitland * considers that this is the place where the 
Britons, after being defeated by Claudius, were compelled to 
ford the river, and were followed by the Emperor, who com- 
pletely routed them. He also thinks that Julius Caesar 
effected the passage of the Thames at this spot. 

• «* Histoty of London.** 



CHAPTER XI. 

KENSINGTON AND HOLLAND HOUSE. 

KNIGHTSBRIDGE, till lately a suburb, now part of 
London, skirts the southern side of Hyde Park. 
It is supposed to derive its name from two knights who 
quarrelled on their way to receive the Bishop of London's 
blessing, and, fighting, killed each other by the bridge 
over the West Bourne. The brook called the West 
Bourne has shared the fate of all Lpndon brooks, and 
is now a sewer, but it still works its way under ground 
from Hampstead, after giving its name to a district in 
Bayswater, and passes under Belgravia to the Thames. 
Pont Street has its name from a bridge over the West 
Bourne. 

At the crossways, where the Brompton Road turns oflf to 
the left, is TatiersalVs^ the most celebrated auction mart for 
horses in existence, and the headquarters of horse-racing, 
established in 1774 by Richard Tattersall, stud-groom to 
the last Duke of Kingston. Sales take place every 
Monday throughout the year, and every Thursday during 
the season. The business of the firm is confined to 
the selling of horses ; they have nothing to do with the 
betting. 



452 



WALKS IN LONDON. 



Following the Knightsbridge Road on the left are several 
of the handsomest houses in London — Kent House (Louisa, 
Lady Ashburton), on the site of a house once inhabited by 
the Duke of Kent ; Stratheden House, where Lord Camp- 
bell wrote his " Lives of the Lord Chancellors ; " and Alford 
House (Lady Marian Alford), an admirable building of brick, 
with high roofs, and terra-cotta ornaments. 

Beyond this are Rutland Gate and Prince's Gate. 




Alford House. 



No. 49 Prince's Gate, the house of Mr. Leyland, contains 
the Peacock Room, decorated by Mr. Whistler in 1876-77. 
The walls and ceiling are entirely covered with peacock 
iridescence, while the separate peacocks on the shutters 
are full of nature and beauty, and still more those in 
defiance over the sideboard, which express a peacock- 
drama. 
The tall bnck chi.aineys and gables on the left belong to 



THE ALBERT HALL. 



453 



the highly picturesque Lowther Lodge (Hon. W. Lowther), 
an admirable work of Norman Shaw. 

All along this road London has been moving out of town 
for the last twenty years, but has never succeeded in getting 
into the country. 

At Kensington Gore^ where Wilberforce resided from 
1808 to 1 82 1, and held his anti-slavery meetings, and 
where Lady Blessington lived afterwards, the centre of a 




Lowther Lodge. 



brilliant circle, the line of houses and villas is broken by the 
Albert Hall, a vast elliptical building of brick, with terra- 
cotta decorations. It was commenced in 1867, and is used 
as a music-hall. This huge pile has no beauty, except in 
the porches, which are exceedingly grandiose in form, and 
effective in shadow and colour. 

[Behind the Albert Hall is a vast quadrangular space, 
occupied (1877) by the Horticultural Gardens, and sur- 



454 WALKS IN LONDON. 

rounded by Exhibition Galleries. At its south-eastern angle, 
facing Cromwell Road, is the South Kensington Museum. 
See Ch. XII.] 

Opposite the Hall, marking the site of the Crystal Palace 
of 1851, and of the Exhibition whose success was so 
greatly due to his exertions, is the Albert Memorial, erected 
from designs of Sir Gilbert Scott to the ever-honoured 
memory of the Prince Consort, Albert of Saxe Gotha (ob. 
Dec. 14, 1 861). Here, beneath a somewhat flimsy imita- 
tion of a Gothic shrine of the thirteenth century, the seated 
statue of the Prince is barely distinguishable through the 
dazzlement of a gilded glitter. The pedestal, whose classic 
forms so strangely contrast with the Gothic structure 
above, is decorated with a vast number of statuettes in high 
relief, representing different painters, sculptors, and musi- 
cians, from Hiram and Bezaleel, Cheops and Sennacherib, 
to Pugin, Barry, and Cockerell ! 

The Iron Gates of the Park near this were made at Cole- 
brook Dale for the south transept of the Crystal Palace 
of 1851. 

Beyond the Albert Memorial, on the right, are Kensing- 
ton Gardens, the pleasantest and most picturesque of the 
London recreation-grounds, occupying 261 acres. They 
were begun by William III. near Kensington Palace, and 
enlarged by Queen Anne and Queen Caroline of Anspach. 
The earlier gardens still retain traces of the Dutch style in 
which they were originally laid out. Near the high road to 
the south is '* St. Govor's Well." The portion nearer Hyde 
Park has noble groves and avenues of old trees, crowded 
with people sitting and walking on Sunday afternoons. The 
pleasantest and broadest of these walks ends in an iron 



KENSINGTON GARDENS, 455 

biidge over the upper part of the Serpentine, designed 
by Rennie in 1826. From hence there are delightful 
views up and down the water, especially charming in 
the rhododendron season. The scene on Sundays in 
1877 is permitted by the fashions to recall the lines of 
Tickell— 

" Where Kensington, high o'er the neighbouring lands, 
Midst greens and sweets, a regal fabric stands, 
And sees each spring, luxuriant in her bowers, 
A snow of blossoms, and a wild of flowers, 
The dames of Britain oft in crowds repair 
To gravel walks and unpolluted air ; 
Here, while the town in damps and darkness lies, 
They breathe in sunshine, and see azure skies ; 
Each walk, with robes of various dyes bespread, 
Seems from afar a moving tulip-bed, 
Where rich brocades and glossy damasks glow, 
And chintz, the rival of the showery bow." 

Addison greatly extols the early landscape gardeners 
employed at Kensington. 

"Wise and Loudon are our heroic poets ; and if, as a critic, I may 
single out any passage of their works to commend, I shall take notice 
of that part in the upper garden at Kensington, which at first was 
nothing but a gravel-pit. It must have been a fine genius for garden- 
ing that could have thought of forming such an unsightly hollow into 
so beautiful an area, and to have hit the eye with so uncommon and 
agreeable a scene as that which it is now wrought into. To give this 
particular spot of ground the greater effect, they have made a very 
pleasing contrast ; for, as on one side of the walk you see this hollow 
basin, with its several little plantations, lying conveniently under the 
eye of the beholder, on the other side of it there appears a seeming 
mount, made up of trees, rising one higher than another, in proportion 
as they approach the centre." — Spectator, No. 477. 

•• Here, in Kensington, are some of the most poetical bits of tree 
and stump, and sunny brown and green glen, and tawny earth." — 
HaydciVs Autobiography. 



456 WALKS IN LONDON. 

Kensington Palace, as Nottingham House, was the resi- 
dence of the Lord Chancellor Heneage Finch, Earl of Not- 
tingham. His son sold it to William HI. in 1690, when 
Evelyn describes it as " a patched-up building — but, with 
the gardens, a very neat villa." The king employed Wren 
to add a story to the old house, which forms the north 
front of the existing palace, and to build the present south 
front. The improvement of Kensington became his passion, 
and while he was absent in Ireland Queen Mary's letters to 
her irascible spouse are full of the progress of his works 
there, and of abject apologies because she could not prevent 
chimneys smoking and rooms smelling of paint. Imme- 
diately after the king's return (Nov. 10, 1691) a great fire 
broke out in the palace, in which William and Mary, having 
narrowly escaped being burnt in their beds, fled into the 
garden, whence they watched their footguards as they passed 
buckets to extinguish the flames. When her new rooms 
were finished, Mary held the drawing-rooms there, at which 
her hostility to her sister Anne first became manifest to 
the world, the princess making " all the professions imagin- 
able, to which the queen remained as insensible as a statue." 
It was in a still existing room that Mary, when (Dec, 1694) 
she felt herself sickening for the small-pox, sat up nearly all 
through a winter's night, burning every paper which could 
throw light upon her personal history, and here, as her illness 
increased, William's sluggish affections were awakened, and 
he never left her, so affectionately stifling his asthmatic 
cough not to disturb her that, on waking from a long lethargy^ 
she asked " where the king was, for she did not hear him 
cough." As the end approached she received the Sacra- 
ment, the bishops who were attending taking it with her. 



KENSINGTON PALACE. 457 

" God knows," said Burnet, " a sorrowful company, for we 
were losing her who was our chief hope and glory on earth." 
It was then that the queen begged to speak secretly to 
Archbishop Tenison, and, when he expected something 
important, bade him take away the Popish nurse whom, in 
the hallucination of illness, she imagined Dr. Radcliffe had 
set to watch her from behind the screen. Mary died on the 
morning of the 28th of December, 1694, and William was 
then in such passionate grief that he swooned three times 
on that terrible day, and his attendants thought that he 
would have been the first to expire. 

After Mary's death William remained in seclusion and 
grief at Kensington, whither Anne came to condole with 
him, carried in her sedan chair (for she was close upon her 
confinement) into his very room,-^the King's Writing- Room, 
which is still preserved. There in 1696 William buckled 
the Order of the Garter with his own hands on the person 
of Anne's eldest child, the little Duke of Gloucester, and 
hither, after he had received his death-hurt by a fall from 
his sorrel pony at Hampton Court, he insisted upon re- 
turning to die, March 8, 1702. 

After William's death, Anne and Prince George of Den- 
mark took possession of the royal apartments at Kensing- 
ton. But the mother of seventeen children was already 
childless and she made her chief residence at St. James's, 
coming for the Easter recess to Kensington, where she 
planted " Queen Anne's Mount," and built in the gardens 
" Queen Anne's Banqueting Room," in which she gave fetes 
which were attended by all the great world of London " in 
brocaded robes, hoops, fly-caps, and fans." The love of 
flowers which the queen manifested here led to her being 



458 WALKS IN LONDON, 

apostrophised as " Great Flora " in the verses of Tom 
D'Urfey. In the same gloomy palace in which she had seen 
the last hours of her sister and brother-in-law, Queen Anne 
(Oct. 28, 1708) lost her husband, George of Denmark, with 
whom she had lived in perfect happiness for twenty years. 
The Duchess of Marlborough describes her agony after- 
wards in the chamber of death — " weeping and clapping 
her hands — swaying herself backward and forward, clasp- 
ing her hands together, with other marks of passion." 
She was led away that evening by the Duchess to her 
carriage to be taken to St. James's, but stopped upon the 
doorstep to desire Lord Godolphin to see that, when the 
Prince was buried at Westminster, room should be left for 
her in his grave. Anne did not live so much at Kensington 
after her husband's death, but it was here, on July 20, 17 14, 
that Mrs. Dan vers, the chief lady in waiting, found her 
staring vacantly at the clock in her Presence Chamber 
" with death in her look." It was an apoplectic seizure. 
On her death-bed she gave a last evidence of the love 
towards her people which had been manifested through her 
whole reign, by saying, as she placed the Lord Treasurer's 
wand in the hands of the Duke of Shrewsbury, " For God's 
sake use it for the good of my people." But, from that 
moment, having accomplished her last act as queen, Anne 
seems to have retraced in spirit the acts of her past life, 
and to have been filled with all the agonies of remorse for 
her conduct to her father and his son — " Oh my brother, 
my poor brother, what will become of you ? " was her con- 
stant cry. To the Bishop of London, who was watching 
beside her, she intrusted a message, which he promised to 
deliver, but which he said would cost him his head. On 



KENSINGTON PALACE. 



459 



hearing of her repentance the Jacobite lords harried to 
Kensington. Atterbury proposed to proclaim the Chevalier 
at Charing Cross, the Duke of Ormonde would join him if 
the queen could but recover consciousness to mention him 
as her successor. Lady Masham undertook to watch her, 
but it was too late. " She dies upwards, her feet are cold 
and dead already," were her hurried words in the ante- 
chamber, and by eight o'clock on Sunday morning, August i, 
1 7 14, *'good Queen Anne" was dead. 

The rooms on the north-west of the Palace were added 
by George II., and intended as a nursery for his children. 
He also died here (October 25, 1760), suddenly, in his 
seventy-seventh year, falling upon the floor, just after he 
had taken his morning chocolate, and when he was pre- 
paring to walk in the garden. 

George III. did not occupy Kensington Palace himself, 
but as his family grew up its different apartments were 
assigned to them. Caroline, Princess of Wales, lived there, 
with her mother the Duchess of Brunswick, after her separa- 
tion from her husband within a year after their marriage. 
In the south wing lived Augustus Frederick, Duke of 
Sussex, with his first wife, Lady Augusta Murray. He 
held his conversazione there as President of the Royal 
Society ; he collected there his magnificent library ; and 
there he died, April 21, 1843. His second wife, created 
Duchess of Inverness, continued to reside at Kensington 
till her death. Finally, in the south-eastern apartments 
of the palace, lived Edward, Duke of Kent, and his wife 
Victoria of Saxe Cobourg, and in them their only daughter 
Victoria was born. May 24, 1819, was christened, June 24, 
1819, and continued to have her principal residence till 



46o WALKS IN LONDON, 

her accession to the throne. Hither the Queen's first 
council was summoned, 

"The queen was, upon the opening of the door, found sitting at the 
head of the table. She received first the homage of the Duke of 
Cumberland ; the Duke of Sussex rose to perform the same ceremony, 
but the queen, with admirable grace, stood up, and, preventing him 
from kneehng, kissed him on the forehead." — Diary of a Lady of 
Quality. 

Two of the descendants of George III. now occupy 
rooms in Kensington Palace — Princess Louise, Marchioness 
of Lome, fourth daughter of the Queen, and Princess Mary, 
Duchess of Teck, younger daughter of the late Duke of 
Cambridge. The grand Staircase of the palace, with grace- 
ful ironwork, was painted by Kent in chiaro-oscuro. Of 
the state-rooms, the Presence Chamber is decorated with 
carving by Gibbons. The monogram of William and Mary 
remains over the door of the Queen's Gallery. 

On the west of the palace is the Palace Green, formerly 
called " the Moor," where the royal standard was daily 
hoisted when the Court resided here. 

Camden House (built in 1612 by Sir Baptist Hicks, 
burnt in 1862, and rebuilt) had its melancholy royal remi- 
niscences from its connection with one who was long the 
heir of the British throne. In 1690 it was taken for the 
little Duke of Gloucester, that he might be near his aunt 
Queen Mary, who was very fond of him, and who had him 
daily carried to see her while she was occupied with her 
buildings at Kensington. The precocious child, with a 
charming countenance, and the large head which betokens 
water on the brain, was the life of the court. His bio- 
grapher, Lewis Jenkins, has preserved for us many absurd 
anecdotes of his childhood — of his regiment of little boys, 



CAMDEN HOUSE, 461 

his ** horse guards," how he made them seize his Welsh 
tailor who made his " stays" too tight, and force him to 
sit upon a wooden horse in the Presence Chamber for a 
pillory ; of his gravely coming to promise King William his 
assistance and that of his little troop in the approaching 
Flemish war ; of his curiously true presentiment of the day 
of his nurse's death; of his indocility with his mother's 
ladies, but his affection for Mrs. Davis, an aged gentle- 
woman of the court of Charles I., who first won his heart 
by giving him cherries, and then taught him prayers which 
he never failed to repeat night and morning, much to the 
surprise of the existing courtiers ; of his constant whippings 
with a birch rod from his Danish father ; of his proudly 
telling King William that he possessed one live horse and 
two dead ones (his Shetland pony and two little wooden 
horses), and of the king's saying, then he had better bury 
his dead horses out of sight, and his consequently insisting 
on burying his playthings with funeral honours and com- 
posing their epitaph. At six years old the little prince, 
with much state, was taken to Kensington to receive the 
Order of the Garter from his uncle. Mr. Pratt, his tutor, 
from whom he and his " regiment " took their lessons 
together, soon afterwards asked him, " How can you, being 
a prince, keep yourself from the pomps and vanities of this 
world ? " "I will keep God's commandments, and do all 
I can to walk in his ways." * At seven years old he was 
introduced at court in the costume of blue velvet and 
diamonds in which he is painted by Kneller at Hampton 
Court. When he was ten years old he was so preter- 
naturally forward that he was able (such was the king's 

• For these anecdotes see Lewis Jenkins. 



462 WALKS IN LONDON, 

will) to pass an examination four times a year on subjects 
which included jurisprudence, the Gothic law, and the 
feudal system. But on his eleventh birthday the little duke 
was taken ill, and died five days after (July 30, 1700) at 
Windsor, in the arms of his anguish-stricken mother,* who 
** attended him during his sickness, with great tenderness, 
but with a grave composedness, that amazed all who saw 
it."t 

In Kensington House, near the palace gates, Louise 
de la Querouaille, Duchess of Portsmouth, lived for some 
time ; and there Mrs. Inchbald, authoress of " The Simple 
Story," died. The modern Kensington House, on the left 
of the road opposite the palace gardens, is a pretentious 
and frightful mansion built in 1876 by James Knowles for 
Mr. Albert Grant. 

In the High Street of Kensington (the Chenesi-dun ot 
Domesday-book) is the handsome Church of St. Mary, re- 
built 1875-77, under Sir Gilbert Scott. It contains, in 
the south transept, the tomb and statue of Edward, Earl of 
Warwick, whom his stepfather Addison upon his death-bed 
desired to witness how a Christian could die, and who died 
himself in his twenty-fourth year. There is a monument to 
George Coleman, author of the "Jealous Wife" and the 
" Clandestine Marriage." In the churchyard are the tomb- 
stones of John Jortin (1770), Vicar of Kensington, author 
of the " Life of Erasmus " and many theological works ; 
James Elphinstone (1809), the translator of Martial; and 
the pathetic novelist, Mrs. Elizabeth Inchbald, 1821. 

Sir Isaac Newton died in Pitt's Buildings, Kensington, 
1727, in his eighty-fifth year. Addison records, as a proof 

* See Strickland's " Lives of Mary II. and Anne." i Burnet. 



HOLLY LODGE, 463 

of his heroism, that though great drops of sweat were forced 
through his double nightcap by his agony in his last illness, 
he never cried out. 

Campden Hill Road, on the right, leads to Argyll Lodge 
(Duke of Argyll) and Airlie Lodge (Earl of Airlie), which, 
under the name oi Holly Lodge, was the residence of Thomas 
Babington, Lord Macaulay, from May 1856 to his death 
Dec. 28, 1859 — while seated in his library chair, with his 
book open beside him. 

" Holly Lodge, now called Airlie Lodge, occupies the most 
secluded comer of the little labyrinth of bye-roads, which, bounded to 
the east by Palace Gardens and to the west by Holland House, con- 
stitutes the district known by the name of Campden* HUl. The vUla, 
for a vUla it is, stands in a long and winding lane, which, with its high 
black paHng concealing from the passer-by everything except a mass of 
dense and varied foliage, presents an appearance as rural as Roe- 
hampton and East Sheen presents still, and as Wandsworth and 
Streatham presented twenty years ago. 

" The rooms in Holly Lodge were for the most part small. The 
dining-room was that of a bachelor who was likewise something of an 
invalid ; and the drawing-room was little more than a vestibule to the 
dining-room. But the house afforded in perfection the two requisites 
for an author's ideal of happiness, a library and a garden. The library 
was a spacious and commodiously shaped room, enlarged, after the old 
fashion, by a pillared recess. It was a warm and airy retreat in winter ; 
and in summer it afforded a student only too irresistible an inducement 
to step from among his bookshelves on to a lawn whose unbroken slope 
of verdure was worthy of the country-house of a Lord-Lieutenant. 
Nothing in the garden exceeded thirty feet in height ; but there was 
in abundance all that hollies, and laurels, and hawthorns, and groves 
of standard roses, and bowers of lilacs and laburnums could give of 
shade, and scent, and colour." — G. O. Trevelyan's Life of Lord 
Macaulay. 

Beyond Upper Phillimore Place (right) are the gates of 
Holland House j^ and how many there are who remember, 
with gratitude, the relief of turning in from the glare and 

* Holland House is not shown to the public. 



464 



WALKS IN LONDON. 



dust of the suburb to the shade of its great elm avenue, 
girt with dewy hayfields, which might be a hundred miles 
from London, and the pleasure of seeing the noble old 
house, surpassing all other houses in beauty, rising at the 
end of the green slope, with its richly sculptured terrace, 
and its cedars, and its vases of brilliant flowers. 

Holland House was originally built in 1607 by Sir 




Holland House. 



Walter Cope, on land which had belonged to the De 
Veres, Earls of Oxford. Sir Walter, who was Gentleman 
of the Bedchamber to James I., called it Cope Castle, but 
it soon changed its name, for his only daughter Isabel 
married Sir Henry Rich, the favourite of the Duke of 
Buckingham, described by Clarendon as '* a very handsome 
man, of a lovely and winning presence, and gentle con- 
versation,"* who was created Lord Kensington in 1622, and 

* His noble portrait, by Vandyke, is at Montague House. 



HOLLAND HOUSE, 465 

Earl of Holland in 1624. In the Civil Wars he abandoned 
the Parhamentarian for the Royalist cause, and, being 
taken prisoner at St. Neots, was beheaded at Westminster, 
beautiful to the last, in his white satin dress, on the 9th of 
March, 1648-9. 

It was the first Earl of Holland who added the wings 
and arcades, in fact who gave Holland House all its charac- 
teristics. After his execution the house was inhabited by 
General Fairfax, and (1649) by General Lambert, but the 
Countess of Holland was eventually allowed to return to 
her old home, where she comforted her widowhood by 
indulging privately in the theatricals so strictly forbidden 
by the Puritan Government. Her son, the second Earl of 
Holland, became fifth Earl of Warwick, through the death 
of his cousin, in 1673, His son was Edward, Earl of 
Warwick, who died in 1701, and whose widow (Charlotte, 
daughter of Sir Thomas Middleton of Chirk) married 
Joseph Addison, " famous for many excellent works," as 
he is described in the announcement of his marriage in 
"The PoUtical State of Great Britain," for August, 1716. 
Dr. Johnson says that the marriage was " on terms very 
much like those on which a Turkish princess is espoused, 
to whom the Sultan is reported to pronounce — ' Daughter, 
I give thee this man for thy slave.' At any rate Addison's 
married life was not happy, though it was of short duration, 
for on June 17, 17 19, he died at Holland House (leaving 
an only daughter who died unmarried), grasping the hand 
of the young Earl of Warwick, when he asked his dying 
commands, and saying, ' See in what peace a Christian can 
die.'" 

The Earl of Warwick, who was Addison's step-son, only 

VOL. II. H H 



466 WALKS IN LONDON. 

survived him two years, and was succeeded by his cousin 
William Edwardes (created Baron Kensington in 1776), 
who sold Holland House in 1767 to Henry Fox, first Lord 
Holland. 

The fortunes of the Fox family were founded by Sir 
Stephen Fox, who gained the favour of Charles H. by 
being the first to announce the death of Cromwell to him 
at Brussels. He was made Clerk of the Green Cloth and 
Paymaster of the Forces, and acquired a great fortune, 
" honestly got and unenvied, which is nigh to a miracle," 
says Evelyn. Sir Stephen Fox, " of a sweet nature, well- 
spoken, well-bred, and so highly in his Majesty's esteem," 
was the practical founder of Chelsea Hospital, as well as 
of many other charitable institutions. By deserting the 
cause of James H. he continued to enjoy Court favour till 
his death in 17 16, when Anne was on the throne. His 
second son, the son of his second wife, was Henry Fox, the 
Secretary of State and Paymaster of the Forces. It was 
with him that Lady Caroline Lennox, the Duke of Rich- 
mond's daughter — after she had cut off her eyebrows to 
protect herself from an unwelcome marriage arranged by 
her father — eloped in 1744. Having endured the fury of 
her parents for four years, she was forgiven on the birth of 
her eldest son. Henry Fox was created Lord Holland after 
his purchase of Holland House, where he died in 1774. 
His son Stephen, who succeeded him, only survived him 
six months, and left an only son, Henry, third Lord 
Holland, who was educated under the guardianship of 
his uncle, Charles James Fox, the famous orator and 
statesman. 

Under the third Lord Holland, Holland House attained 



HOLLAND HOUSE, 467 

a splendour and beauty which it had never acquired 
before, and it became an intellectual centre, not only for 
England, but for the world. Its master is remembered as 
the most genial of mankind ; Lady Holland, though way- 
ward and fanciful, was also beautiful and clever ; Miss 
Fox, Lord Holland's sister, was loving, gracious, and 
charitable. Sydney Smith, Luttrell, and Allen were habi- 
tues of the house, and had their fixed apartments assigned 
to them. The list of guests included Sheridan, Blanco 
White, Parr, Byron, George ElHs, Lord Jeffrey, Payne 
Knight, Thurlow, Eldon, Brougham, Lyndhurst, Sir Hum- 
phry Davy, Count Romford, Lord Aberdeen, Lord Moira, 
Windham, Curran, Sir Samuel Romilly, Washington Irving, 
Pozzo di Borgo, Counts Montholon and Bertrand, Prin- 
cess Lieven, the Humboldts, Talleyrand, Tom Moore, 
Madame de Stael, Macaulay. Daily all that was most 
brilliant in European society was welcomed uninvited to 
the hospitable dinner-table. It was no wonder that 
Sydney Smith heard " five hundred travelled men assert 
that there was no such agreeable house as Holland 
House." 

The third Lord Holland died in 1841, and was suc- 
ceeded by his son, British Minister at Florence. He died 
in 1859. Under his widow, Mary Augusta, Lady Holland, 
daughter of the eighth Earl of Coventry, Holland House 
still has the reputation of being the most charming house 
in England. 

As we pass the terrace which bounds the garden and 
enter the deep belt of shade which encircles the mansion, the 
most conspicuous feature is a gateway with stone piers by 
Inigo Jones bearing the arms of Rich, approached by a 



468 IVALKS IN LONDON, 

double flight of steps enclosing a fountain. The house is 
now entered from the east side ; originally the entrance was 
on the south, and it was there that William Penn, to whom 
Holland House was let for a time, narrates that he could 




At Holland House. 



scarcely get down the steps through the crowd of suitors 
who besought him to use his good oftices with the king 
in their behalf. 

The Intei'ior of Holland House is full of historical relics, 



HOLLAND HOUSE. 469 

pictures, and china. Many of the portraits are by Watts, 
who first rose into fame under the patronage of Elizabeth, 
Lady Holland, and who painted, for the walls of the house, 
many of the most valued friends of its master. One of his 
best portraits is that of Princess Lieven. 

In the last of " the West Rooms " — around which, to those 
who know it well, many of the happiest associations of the 
house are entwined — are three interesting works oiHogarth^ 
a view of Ranelagh ; a portrait of the first Lord Holland ; 
and a scene of Private Theatricals (from Dryden's Indian 
Emperor) at the house of Mr. Conduitt, Master of the 
Mint, in which the first Lady Holland, then Lady Carohne 
Lennox, with her father and mother, took a part. Her 
portrait by Ramsay also hangs here, with that of her sister 
Lady Cecilia Lennox, who died of consumption at Holland 
House. 

From the third of the West Rooms a staircase leads to 
the Library (originally a Portrait Gallery), a long room, 
warm with a glow of crimson velvet, with two great carved 
chimney-pieces, and deeply recessed windows, from one of 
which there is a view, through the dark boughs of a cedar, 
into the radiant flower-garden. In one corner is Addison's 
folding-table (purchased at Rogers' sale) covered with faded 
green velvet, blotted by his pen. A little lobby leads from 
the library to the inner rooms. Here, on a pane of glass, 
are the lines written by Hookham Frere in 181 1 — 

** May neither fire destroy nor waste impair, 
Nor Time consume thee till the twentieth heir. 
May Taste respect thee, and may Fashion spare.'* 

Here also, amongst other relics, are — 



4?0 JVALKS IN LONDON. 

A Letter from Voltaire, written at the " Delices," expressing his 
" pleasure at receiving the son of the amiable and honoured Mr. Fox, 
who was formerly so kind to me." 

A Portrait of Addison. 

A Miniature of the Empress Catherine, with a letter from her, 
saying that she had ordered the bust of " Charles Fox " to be placed 
on her colonnade with those of Demosthenes and Cicero. 

An original Portrait of Benjamin Franldin, given by M. Gallois at 
Paris. 

A Portrait of John Locke, supposed to be the identical picture dis- 
carded from the hall at Christ Church. 

An outline Portrait of Edward VI. by Vertue, given by Horace 
Walpole. 

A Miniature of Robespierre, on the back of which Fox has written, 
"un scelerat, un hlche, et un fou." 

A Medallion of Ariosto found near the head of the poet when his 
coffin was exhumed in S. Benedetto at Ferrara in 1800. 

An autograph Order by Addison ( 1 7 1 9) desix-ing that the Countess 
of Warwick should be allowed to receive for him his stock in the 
South Sea Company. 

We enter from hence the Yellow Drawing Room, which 
contains a charming pastel portrait of Charles James Fox 
as a child, and leads into the Gilt Room, full of rich colour, 
with a great window over the central doorway. The 
emblematical figures over the chimney-pieces are by Walls, 
and supply the place of lost pictures by Francis Cleyn, a 
Danish artist, which were described by Walpole as not 
unworthy of Parmigiano. From this room, which is said to 
be haunted by the ghost of the first Earl of Holland carry- 
ing his head in his hand, we may enter the Crimson Draw- 
ing Room, or Sir Joshua Room, filled with noble works by 
Reynolds — 

* The " Muscipula" — a little girl, with a face full of mischief, hold- 
ing a mou?.e in a cage temptingly out of reach of a cat. 

* Portrait of Charles James Fox, a noble picture. The Receipt for 
£\oi for the portrait (April 20, 1789) is preserved. Reyi'>olds painted 



HOLLAND HOUSE. ^Jt 

Fox again in Nov. 1791 ; his last portrait, to which, when the final 
touches were given, "his hand fell to rise no more." 

* Portrait of the first Lord Holland, with Holland House in the 
background. The picture belonged to his granddaughter Miss Fox, 
and was stolen from her house in London : it was lost for thirty years, 
after which it was found by Miss Fox, and repurchased, in Colnaghi's 
shop. 

"It is said that Lord Holland, when he received his portrait, could 
not help remarking that it had been hastily executed ; and, making 
some demur about the price, asked Reynolds how long he had been 
painting it ; the offended artist replied, ' All my life, my Lord.' " — 
Cotton's Sir J. Reynolds and his Works, 

Florentius Vassall and Mrs. Russell. 

* Charles James Fox walking with Lady Susan Strangways, who 
afterwards eloped with O'Brien the actor, beneath a window of Holland 
House, out of which leans Lady Sarah Lennox, the lovely sister of the 
first Lady Holland, who awakened the early love of George III., and 
afterwards married Sir Charles Bunbury. A most beautiful picture. 

Mary Bruce, Duchess of Richmond {oh. 1797). 
Hon. Thomas Conolly [ph. 1803). 
Hon. Caroline Fox, and her dog. 

* Portrait of Baretti, author of the Italian Dictionary, seated in his 
old brown coat, very short-sighted, and peering into a book. This 
picture was given by Lord Hertford in exchange for a portrait of his 
grandmother, Lady Irwin. 

The Dining-room is interesting as the chamber in which 
Addison died. We must notice its pictures — 

Kneller. Sir Stephen Fox (1716) and Lady Fox (17 18). 
Watts. Maiy Augusta, Lady Holland. 

Fagan. Elizabeth, Lady Holland, seated, with a dog in her lap and 
Vesuvius in the distance. 

Hoppner. Samuel Rogers, an admirable portrait. 
Hayter. Lord John Russell. 

* Reynolds. Caroline, Lady Holland. 
Shee. Thomas Moore. 

Ramsay. Lady Louisa Conolly, a sister of Caroline, Lady Holland, 
A graceful full-length portrait in a pink dress. 

The gardens of Holland House are unlike anything else 



472 



WALKS IN LONDON. 



in England. Every turn is a picture : Art has combined 
with Nature to make it so, and has never intruded upon 
Nature. A raised terrace, like some of those which belong 
to old Genoese palaces, leads from the house, high amongst 
the branches of the trees, to the end of the flower-garden 
opposite the West Rooms, where a line of arches festooned 
with creepers^ — a picturesque relic of the old stables — forms 




The Lily Garden, Holland House. 



the background. Facing a miniature Dutch garden here 
is " Rogers' Seat," inscribed — 

"Here Rogers sat and here for ever dwell 
With me, those Pleasures that he sings so well." 

Within the little arbour hang some verses by Luttrell. 
Opposite is a noble head of Napoleon I. by Canova or 
one of his pupils, erected whilst he was at St. Helena, on a 



GARDENS OF HOLLAND HOUSE, 473 

pedestal inscribed with lines from Homer's Odysfey (Book 
I. i. 196) translated by the third Lord Holland. 

* ^ He is not dead, he breathes the air. 
In lands beyond the deep, 
Some distant sea-girt island where 
Harsh men the hero keep." 

Beyond this are gardens occupying the ground where 
Lord Camelford was killed in a duel with Colonel Best in 
1804 Below is "the Green Lane," a long avenue, where 
hares and pheasants have been shot within the memory of 
the present generation, and where, as Aubrey narrates — 

" The beautiful Lady Diana Rich, daughter to the Earl of Holland, 
as she was walking in her father's garden at Kensington, to take the 
fresh air before dinner, about eleven o'clock, being then very well, met 
her own apparition, habit, and everything, as in a looking-glass. 
About a month after, she died of the small-pox. And 'tis said, that 
her sister, the Lady Isabella (Thinne) saw the like of herself also before 
she died. This account I had from a person of honour." — MisceU 
lanies. 

The garden of Holland House is remarkable as the place 
where the Dahlia (named from Dr. Andrew Dahl, a 
Swedish botanist) was first cultivated in England, being 
raised from seeds in 1804, brought from Spain by EHzabeth, 
Lady Holland. The custom of gunfire at 11 p.m., so well 
known to inhabitants of Kensington, is said to have been 
instituted by a Lord Holland whose watchman was 
murdered by poachers because he had forgotten to load his 
gun, and who desired that all robbers might be warned that 
they were not to consider this a precedent that they might 
attack his servants with impunity.* We cannot leave 

* For further particulars as to the house and its contents, " Holland House," 
by Princess Marie Liechtenstein, may be consulted. 



474 WALKS IN LONDON. 

Holland House without quoting the noble passage relating 
to the third Lord Holland in Macaulay's " Essays " — 

" In what language shall we speak of that house, once celebrated fot 
its rare attractions to the furthest ends of the civilised world. To that 
house, a poet addressed these tender and graceful lines, which have 
now acquired a new meaning not less sad than that which they origin- 
ally bore. 

« Thou hiU, whose brow the antique structures grace, 
Reared by bold chiefs of "Warwick's noble race, 
Why, once so loved, whene'er thy power appears, 
O'er my dim eyeballs glance the sudden tears ? 
How sweet were once thy prospects fresh and fair, 
Thy sloping walks and unpolluted air ! 
How sweet the glooms beneath thine aged trees. 
Thy noon-tide shadow and thine evening breeze I 
His image thy forsaken bowers restore ; 
Thy walks and airy prospects charm no more ; 
No more the summer in thy glooms allayed, 
Thine evening breezes, and thy noon-day shade.'* 

"Yet a few years, and the shades and structures may follow their 
illustrious masters. The wonderful city which, ancient and gigantic 
as it is, still continues to grow as fast as a young town of logwood by a 
water-privilege in Michigan, may soon displace those turrets and 
gardens which are associated with so much that is interesting and 
noble, with the courtly magnificence of Rich, with the loves of 
Ormond, with the counsels of Cromwell, with the death of Addison. 
The time is coming when, perhaps, a few old men, the last survivors of 
our generation, wLU in vain seek, amidst new streets, and squares, and 
railway stations, for the site of that dwelling which was in their youth 
the favourite resort of wits and beauties, of painters and poets, of • 
scholars, philosophers, and statesmen. They will then remember, with 
strange tenderness, many objects once familiar to them, the avenue and 
terrace, the busts and the paintings, the carving, the grotesque gilding, 
and the enigmatical mottoes. With peculiar fondness they will recall 
that venerable chamber, in which all the antique gravity of a college 
library was so singularly blended with all that female grace and wit 
could devise to embellish a drawing-room. They will recoUect, not 
unmoved, those shelves loaded with the varied learning of many lands 
and many ages, and those portraits in which were preserved the features 

* Tickell on the " Death of Addison.'* 



HOLLAND HOUSE, 475 

of the best and wisest Englishmen of two generations. They will recol- 
lect how many men who have guided the politics of Europe, who have 
moved great assemblies by reason and eloquence, who have put life 
into bronze and canvas, or who have left to posterity things so written 
as it shall not willingly let them die, were there mixed with all that 
was loveliest and gayest in the society of the most splendid of capitals. 
These will remember the peculiar character which belonged to that 
circle, in which eveiy talent and accomplishment, every art and science, 
had its place. They vdll remember how the last debate was discussed 
in one comer, and the last comedy of Scribe in another ; while Willcie 
gazed with modest admhation on Sir Joshua's Baretti ; while Mackin- 
tosh turned over Thomas Aquinas to verify a quotation ; while Talley- 
rand related his conversations with Barras at the Luxembourg, or his 
ride with Lannes over the field of Austerlitz. They will remember, 
above all, the grace, and the kindness, far more admirable than grace, 
with which the princely hospitality of that ancient mansion was dis- 
pensed. They will remember the venerable and benignant countenance 
and the cordial voice of him who bade them welcome. They will remember 
that temper which years of pain, of sickness, of lameness, of confine- 
ment, seemed only to make sweeter and sweeter, and that frank polite- 
ness, which at once relieved all the embarrassment of the youngest and 
most timid writer or artist, who found himself for the first time among 
Ambassadors and Earls. They will remember that constant flow of 
conversation, so natural, so animated, so various, so rich with obser\-a- 
tion and anecdote ; that wit which never gave a wound ; that exquisite 
mimicry, which ennobled instead of degrading ; that goodness of heart 
which appeared in every look and accent, and gave additional value to 
every talent and acquirement. They will remember, too, that he whose 
name they hold in reverence was not less distinguished by the inflexible 
uprightness of his poHtical conduct, than by his loving disposition and his 
winning manners. They will remember that, in the last lines which he 
traced, he expressed his joy that he had done nothing unworthy of the 
friend of Fox and Grey ; and they will have reason to feel similar joy, 
if, in looking back on many troubled years, they cannot accuse them- 
selves of having done anything unworthy of men who were distin- 
guished by the Mendship of Lord Holland." — Macaulay, 



CHAPTER XII. 

SOUTH KENSINGTON. 

IF we turn to the left at Tattersall's, the wide ugly 
Brompton Road will lead us to Cromwell Road, 
where the South Kensington Museum^ begun in 1856, is 
perpetually extending. In its later buildings great use is 
made of the different tints of terra-cotta ornament so largely 
and advantageously employed in the Lombard cities. 

The Museum is open free on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Saturdays, 
from 10 A.M. to 10 P.M. On "Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays 
the Museum is open from 10 A.M. to 4, 5, or 6 P.M., as advertised at the 
entrance, on payment of dd. 

Any one is permitted to make notes and sketches in the museum 
galleries, who does not require to sit down or m-xke use of an easel. 
Visitors are permitted to make careful copies from the objects or 
pictures (not water-colours) by following the rules advertised in the 
galleries. 

The principal entrance to the Museum is in Cromwell 
Road.* We first enter the New Court, which is divided by 
a central gallery. It is approached beneath a magnificent 
Roodloft of marble and alabaster, of 1623, from the cathedral 
of Bois le Due in North Brabant. In the centre is a copy 
of Trajan's Column at Rome. The magnificent collection 

• In the garden is John Bell's statue of "The Eagle-SIayer.'' 



SOUTH KENSINGTON MUSEUM. 477 

of architectural casts and other objects in this court include 
— beginning from the left — 

Tomb of Walter Gray, Archbishop of York, 1216-55, from York 

Minster. 

Porch of Rochester Cathedral, 1340. 

Porch in the cloisters of Norwich Cathedral, 1297 — 1329. 

Angle of the cloisters of San Juan de los Reyes, Toledo, 15th 
cent. 

Tabernacle of S. L^au near Brussels, by Comeille de Vriendt, i6th 
cent. 

*Reredos representing the Legend of St. Margaret, German of the 
15th cent.* 

*Altar-piece representing the Legend of St. George, in nineteen 
compartments, from Valencia, 15th cent. 

Arch of Santa Maria la Blanca (the Jewish Synagogue) at Toledo, 
14th cent. 

(North wall.) The Porch called Puerta della Gloria, of the Cathe- 
dral of Santiago, 1 180-90. 

(East wall.) Choir stalls of Ulm Cathedral by Jorg Syrlin, 1468. 

Choir Screen of St. Michael's, Hildesheim, 12th cent. 

(Screen.) The Schreyder Monument from St. Sebald at Nurem- 
berg, executed by Adam Kraft in 1492. The reliefs represent the 
Cross Bearing, the Entombment, and the Resurrection. 

*Portions of the wrought-iron Screen in Hampton Court gardens, 
executed by Huntingdon Shaw of Nottingham, in 1625. 

*Doorway from the demolished wooden church of Sailand in Norway, 
1 2th cent. 

Seven-branched Candlestick from Milan Cathedral, 12th cent. 

Passing the central Screen of the court, we see — 

The Chimney-piece of the Council Chamber of the Palais de 
Justice, Bruges, 1529. 

The Corona (hanging from the roof) of Hildesheim Cathedral, 
1044-54. 

Fountain, with figures of Perseus and Medusa, in the old palace at 
Munich, 1680. 

Tomb of Count Henneberg in Romhild Church, Meiningen, by 
Petar Vischer, 1508, from a drawing by Albert Durer. 

• Orig^inal works of art are here marked with an asterisk. 



478 WALKS IN LONDON. 

St. George, on horseback, slaying the dragon, from a fountain in 
the Hradschin Palace at Prague, 1378. 

Iron Baptismal Font and Crane, from Notre Dame de Hal in 
Belgium, cast by William Le Fevre at Toumay in 1444. 

Font of Hildesheim Cathedral, 1260. 

The Shrine of St. Sebald at Nuremberg, by Peter Vischer, 
1506-19. 

Porch of the tomb of Sheik Salem Christi at Fathpur Sikri near 
Agra, Mogul Art, 1556 — 1605. 

Eastern gateway of the Sanchi Tope near Bilsah, Bhopal, Central 
India. Buddhist, a.d. 19 — 37. 

Pulpit of Mimbar, Cairo, 15th cent. 

From the central door at the end of the corridor beneath 
the screen we enter the South Court, decorated with mosaic 
portraits of distinguished painters, sculptors, or workers in 
pottery. The west side of the area is entirely occupied by 
the Loan Colledmis ; the eastern side is filled with cases of 
precious objects. At the south-eastern angle is a model of a 
French boudoir of the time of Marie Antoinette — containing 
a harp supposed to have belonged to that queen. 

Descending the central passage we enter the North Court, 
devoted chiefly to architecture and sculpture. Over the 
entrance is a model of the Cantoria or Singing Gallery in 
Santa Maria Novella at Florence, by Baccio d'Agnolo, c. 
1500. On the opposite side is the tribune of Santa 
Chiara at Florence, 1493. Most of the objects in this Hall 
are copies : we shall only notice a few of the precious 
originals. 

(Left of entrance.) A Lavabo "b^ Benedetto de RovezzanOy 1490, from 
a house at Florence. 

An Altar by Benedetto de Majano, 1444-98, from the Palazzo 
Ambron at Florence, containing a terra -cotta Pieta of the 15th 
century. 

(Right of entrance.) Bust of Henry VII. by Torregiano, i6th 



SOUTH KENSINGTON MUSEUM. 479 

Lavello for domestic use, from Venice, 1520. 

St. Sebastian — a statuette attributed to Michael Angela, 1505. 

The Leathern Sword and Scabbard of Caesar Borgia (15CX)), whose 
monogram " Cesare " is thrice repeated upon it. 

(In a glass case) Cupid (?) by Michael AngelOy believed to have 
been executed for Jacopo Galli in 1497. 

Altar, bearing a relief of the Resurrection, with statuettes of Saints 
on tlie pilasters, from St. Domenico at Genoa, 15th cent. 

Statue of Jason, by a pupil of Michael Angelo, c. 1530. 

A case of Sculptor's Models in wax and terra-cotta (several 
attributed to Michael Angelo) which belonged to the Gherardini da 
Firenze. 

Altar-piece by Leonardo del Tasso, 1520, from the Chiirch of Santa 
Chiara at Florence, enclosing a tabernacle ascribed to Desiderio da 
Settignano, c. 1480. 

Bust of Giovanni di San Miniato, by Antonio Rossellino, 1456. 

Kneeling Virgin, by Matteo Civilali of TLucca, 15th cent. 

(Near the north end of the Court) the " Waterloo Vase," executed 
by Sir R. Westmacott for George IV. 



Beneath the gallery on the eastern side of this court is a 
collection of ecclesiastical vestments, including (within the 
4th arch) the famous Syon Cope, which was worked in 
the reign of Henry III., and belonged to the nuns of Syon 
near Isleworth, by whom it was carried into Portugal at the 
Reformation. Brought back to England at the beginning 
of the nineteenth century, it was bequeathed to the Earl of 
Shrewsbury by some poor nuns to whom he had given an 
asylum. Beneath the 5th arch is a Portrait of Napoleon I., 
interesting as an example of the wonderful needlework of 
Miss Mary Linwood, whose exhibition excited so much 
interest at the beginning of this century. Built into the 
compartments below the east gallery are a number of noble 
chimney-pieces, rescued from decaying palaces at Como. 
Brescia, Venice, &c., and well worthy of study. The most 
magnificent, from Padua, is of 1530 : opposite to it are an 



480 WALKS IN LONDON, 

altar-piece and tabernacle from the Church of S. Girolamo 
at Fiesole, by Andrea da Fiesole. 

The compartments beneath the northern gallery are chiefly 
occupied by specimens of Delia Robbia Ware, including — 

A Medallion bearing the arms of King Rene of Anjou, executed in 
honour of his visit to the Villa della Loggia, which belonged to the 
Pazzi family, near Florence, c. 1453. 

The Adoration of the Magi, by Andrea della Robbia. 

The Madonna giving her girdle to St. Philip, from the Chapel of 
the Canigiani near Florence, 1500. 

Twelve Plaques, painted in blue, representing the twelve months of 
the year, supposed to have been painted by Luca della Robbia for the 
writing-room of Cosimo de' Medici. 

Against one of the piers on the west side of the court is a terra-cotta 
bust of the 15th century, said to be a portrait of Savonarola. 

From the north-western angle of the North Court a door 
leads to the North Corridor, devoted to an exhibition of 
Persian Art. Hence we reach the North-western Corridors, 
devoted to ancient furniture. We had better return to the 
staircase at the north-western angle of the North Court to 
ascend to the upper floor. The walls here are decorated 
with the cartoons executed for the frescoes in the Houses 
of Parliament. Passing through the three rooms facing 
the stairs (devoted to Loan Exhibitions), a door on the 
right leads into Galleries devoted to Pottery and Porcelain, 
both English and Foreign. From the third of the before- 
mentioned rooms a door on the left leads to the Galleries 
above the South Court. That above the central screen con- 
tains many of the greatest treasures of the museum — 

A case containing— a splendid Reliquary, formed like a Byzantine 
Church, 1 2th century — an altar cross of Rhenish Byzantine Work, 
1 2th cent. — a fine German triptych of champleve enamel of the 13th 
cent. 



THE SHEEPSHANKS COLLECTION. 481 

Eight cases of rare enamels, i6th and 17th centuries. 

Three cases of ecclesiastical objects. The third contains the 
famous " Gloucester Candlestick " given by the Abbot Peter to the 
Church of St. Peter at Gloucester, c. 1 104. 

Two cases of precious metals combined with agate, crystal, and other 
materials. 

Four cases of rare vessels in precious metals for secular use. 

Two cases of clocks and watches. Observe the astronomical glob*» 
made at Augsburg in 1584 for the Emperor Rudolph 11. 

Entering the Southern Gallery, the western portion is 
devoted to Carvings in Ivory. In a case at the entrance of 
the eastern portion is a beautiful Metallic Mirror made for 
a Duke of Savoy, c 1550. 

(The door in the centre leads to the Gallery over the 
Central Screen of the Neiv Court, containing noble specimens 
of ancient iron-work, chiefly German and Italian.) 

The door at the east end of the Southern Gallery 
leads to the Galleries of Water Colour Pictures^ through 
which we enter three rooms almost entirely devoted to 
the collection of pictures illustrative of British Art which 
was given to the nation by Mr. John Sheepshanks in 1857, 
and which is known as "the Sheepshanks Collection." 
We may especially notice — 

\5t Room. 

Sir E, Landseer (1802—73). ^8. The Drover*s Departure; 91. 
There's no place like Home ; 93. The Old Shepherd's Chief Mourner ; 
99. Suspense. 

Peter de Wint (1784— 1849). 258. A Cornfield— a glorious picture, 
given by the painter's daughter. 

• The best pictures here are the hundred works of art given by Mrs. Ellison of 
Sudbrooke near Lincoln. Especially beautiful is No. 1048, Conisborough Castle 
by G. F. Robson (1790 — 1833). Some of the pictures are interesting as repre- 
sentations of Old London— as that of old Buckingham House (No. 80) by 
E, Dayes. 

VOL. II. I I 



^a WALKS IN LONDON. 

2nd Room, 

33. John Constable (1776— 1837). Chichester Cathedral. 
62. Thomas Creswick (181 1 — 69). A Summer's Afternoon. 

yd Room, 

Joseph Mallard William Turner (1775 — 1851). 207. Lifle-fishing 
off Hastings; 208. Venice; 209. St. Michael's Mount, Cornwall; 
210. Royal Yacht Squadron at Cowes; 211. Vessel in distress oflE 
Yarmouth. 

Hence we reach the North Gallery, which contains the 
celebrated Cartoons of Raffaelle, being the original designs 
(drawn with chalk upon strong paper and coloured in dis- 
temper) by Raffaelle and his scholars, especially Francesco 
Penni, for the tapestries ordered by Leo X. to cover the 
lower walls of the Sistine Chapel, the upper part being 
already clothed with the glorious frescoes which still adorn 
them. There were originally eleven Cartoons, but four are 
lost — The Stoning of Stephen, The Conversion of St. Paul, 
St. Paul in his Dungeon at Philippi, and the Coronation of 
the Virgin, which last was intended to fill the space above 
the altar. The tapestries were executed at Arras, and were 
hence called Arazzi. They were worked under the super- 
intendence of Bernard van Orley, a Dutch pupil of 
Raffaelle, and were hung up in the Sistine, on St. Stephen's 
Day, Dec. 26, 15 19. Eight years after, they were carried 
off in the sack of Rome by the French, but were restored to 
Julius III. by the Constable Anne de Montmorency. In 
1798 they were again carried off by the French, and passing 
through various hands, were repurchased by Pius VII. in 
1808 from a Frenchman named Devaux, at Genoa. Though 
greatly faded and much injured by bad restoration, they still 
hang in the Vatican. 



THE CARTOONS, 483 

The seven Cartoons, which alone exist now, lay neglected 
in the manufactory at Arras till they were seen there in 
1630 by Rubens, who advised Charles I. to purchase them 
for a tapestry manufactory which was established at Mort- 
lake. On the death of Charles, Cromwell bought them for 
jQz^o. They remained almost forgotten at Whitehall till 
the time of William III., who removed them to Hampton 
Court, where a room was built for them by Wren, in which 
they hung till they were brought to South Kensington. 
Tapestry workers have twice cut them into strips and pricked 
the outlines with their needles, first at Arras, and afterwards 
at Mortlake, where several copies were executed. A splendid 
set of tapestries worked from the Cartoons whilst they were 
at Arras (probably ordered by Henry -VHI.) was in the 
collection of Charles I, at Whitehall, and was purchased, 
after his death, by the Duke of Alva : they are now in the 
Royal Museum at Berlin. 

The Cartoons require many visits to be properly under- 
stood. He who visits them often will agree with Steele : 
" When I first went to see them, I must confess I was but 
barely pleased ; the next time I liked them better ; but at 
last, as I grew better acquainted with them, \ fell deeply 
in love with them : like wise speeches, ihty sank deep 
into my heart." * 

Right. 

Christ's Charge to Peter. The Saviour, a noble figure of divine 
expression, points to Peter, who kneels, with the keys in his hand, and 
gazes up with loving veneration to his Master, who bids him " Feed 
my Sheep ! " A somewhat literal expression is given to thr words by 
the flock of sheep to which the Saviour points with his left hand. The 
disciples express every variety of emotion, surprise, astonishment, 

• Spectator, No. 244. 



484 WALKS IN LONDON. 

even anger, but the expression in James and John is only that of 

adoration and love. 

" Nothing can exceed the beaming warmth, the eager look of pure 
devotion, in St. John's head. His delightful face seems to start 
forward from his hair with gratitude and rapture. St. John seems to 
have been a character RafFaelle delighted in. It was in fact his 
own." — Haydon. 

" Present authority, late sufferings, humility and majesty, despotic 
command and divine love are at once seated in the celestial aspect of 
our blessed Lord. The figures of the eleven apostles are all in the 
same passion of admiration, but discover it differently according to 
their characters. The beloved disciple has in his countenance wonder 
drowned in love : and the last personage, whose back is towards the 
spectators, and his side towards the presence, one would fancy to be 
St. Thomas, as abashed by the conscience of his former diffidence, 
which perplexed concern it is possible Raffaelle thought it too hard a 
task to draw, but by this acknowledgment of the difficulty to describe 
it." — Spectator, 226. 

The Death of Ananias. Peter, who stands with James as the 
prominent figure of the apostolic group, appears to be uttering the 
words, " Thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God." In the fore- 
ground the mercenary Ananias falls in the convulsion of death, while 
the spectators are horrified at the divine judgment. In the background 
are two groups unconscious of the scene enacted near them. On the 
one side are people bringing in their property to the community of 
goods, amongst them Sapphira, who comes with reluctance, counting 
the money she is about to part from : on the other side St. John, the 
apostle of love, and another, are comforting the poor with gifts. 

Peter and John Healing the Lame Man. The apostles are standing 
between the twisted pillars of the Beautiful Gate of the Temple. St. 
Peter, grasping the cripple by the hand, bids him " Arise and walk ! " 
St. John, filled with pity, gazes upon the beggar, who, when he first 
finds strength in his feet, is doubtful of their new vigour. " The 
heavenly apostles appear acting these great things with a deep sense of 
the infirmities which they relieve, but no value of themselves who 
minister to their weakness. They know themselves to be but the 
instruments."* The figures of the spectators are wonderfully noble 
and expressive. 

" What a beautiful creature is that in the comer who with a fairy's 
lightness is gracefully supporting an elegant wicker basket of fruit and 
flowers and doves, and holding a beautiful boy who carries doves also, 

• Spectator, No. 226. 



THE CARTOONS, 485 

which are undulating their little innocent heads to suit his motion. 
She, as she glides on, turns her exquisite features, her large blue eyes, 
beautiful full nose, and little delicate breathing mouth, whose upper 
lip seems to tremble with feeling, and to conceal, for a moment, a little 
of the nostril. Never was there a more exquisite creature painted. It 
is impossible to look at her without being in love with her. RafFaelle's 
flame was so steady and pure. 

"Several bystanders seem to regard the beggar as if with an ejacula- 
tion of * Poor Man ! ' One appears lost in abstraction as if reflecting 
on his helpless situation." — Hay don. 

Paul and Barnabas at Lystra. A cripple, who has been healed, is 
expressing his gratitude to the apostles, while an old man, raising his 
garment, is satisfying himself that the maimed limb is really restored. 
The priests, who mistake the apostles for Mercury and Jupiter, are 
hastening forward with bulls for the sacrifice, and a man is bringing in 
a ram. Paul is about to rend his garments in his indignation at the 
idolatry of the people, and Barnabas, clasping his hands, prays that it 
may be arrested. A young man, observing the distress of the apostles, 
tries to stop the sacrifice, and already, in some of the faces at the edge 
of the picture, is evinced the change in the temper of the people of 
Lystra, who afterwards stoned Paul. The sacrificial group in this 
cartoon is taken from a relief in the Villa Medici at Rome. 

Left. 

Elymas the Sorcerer struck Blind. Paul, a sublime figure, stretches 
out his hand with the words, " And now behold the hand of the Lord is 
upon thee, and thou shalt be blind, not seeing the sun for a season." 
The Sorcerer, standing opposite to him, filled with graceless indigna- 
tion, gropes forwards in the first hideous tenor of his blindness. 
Sergius, the proconsul of Cyprus, starts fotward from his seat in 
dismay, and even the lictors at the side of the throne exhibit fear and 
amazement. Only the upper half of the tapestry from this cartoon is 
in existence. 

Paul Preachiftg at Athens. The noble figure of St. Paiil was 
adapted by RafFaelle from that lately finished by Filippino Lippi 
in the Church of the Carmine at Florence. The audience express every 
varied emotion of attention, meditation, doubt, and con\'iction. The 
greater part of this cartoon was probably executed by Francesco Penni. 

The Miraculous Draught of Fishes. The scene is the lake of 
Gennesaret. On the distant shore the people still linger where the 
Saviour has been teaching from Peter's boat. Now the two boats of 
the disciples are drawn up close to each other. In one of them 



486 IVALKS IN LONDON, 

several of the apostles are vainly striving to draw in their net, which is 
torn with the weight of the fish : in the other, Peter kneels at the feet 
of his Saviour, with the words, " Depart from me, for I am a sinful 
man, O Lord ! " RafFaelle is believed to have executed almost the 
whole oi this cartoon with his own hand, as a model for the rest, but 
the cranes on the bank are attiibuted to Giovanni da Udine. 

On the opposite side of Exhibition Road (reached from 
the North-western — i.e. Furniture Galleries — take a ticket 
of free admittance with you from the door as you go out) 
is the entrance to the Educational part of the Museum 
devoted to Educational Appliances, Natural Products, Ma- 
chinery, Naval Models, and Building Materials. A division 
in the long gallery devoted to machinery is interesting as 
containing — 

The Puffing Billy. The oldest locomotive in existence, the first 
which ran with a smooth wheel on a smooth rail, constructed under 
William Hedley's Patent for Christopher Blackett of Wylam Collieries. 
After many trials, it began to work regularly in 1813, and was kept in 
use till 1862. 

The Rocket, the prize engine, constructed by Stephenson for com- 
petition in 1829 at Rain Hill, on the Liverpool and Manchester 
Railway, which was formally opened, Sept. 15, 1830. 

The original Engine fitted in 18 12 to the Comet, the first steamer in 
Europe advertised for the conveyance of passengers and goods. 

The first Hydraulic Press, constructed by Joseph Bramah in 1795. 

The Fire Engine patented by Richard Newsham, 1821-25, being 
one of the first engines in which two cylinders and an air-vessel are 
combined and worked together so as to ensure the discharge of con- 
tinuous streams of water. 

Different Models designed and patented by James Watt, and that 
(Newcomen's Engine) in repairing which he made the discovery of a 
separate condenser, which identified his name with that of the steam- 
engine. 

The first staircase on the right leads to the National 
Portrait Gallery, of ever-increasing interest and importance, 
established at the suggestion of Philip Henry, 5th Earl 



THE NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY. 487 

Stanhope, its first President. At present it occupies a suite 
of small rooms which are wholly inadequate, and, as it is 
constantly increasing, no arrangement as to dates or characters 
has been even attempted. It deserves the appropriation of 
some fine building in a central situation, such as the 
wantonly destroyed Northumberland House. Many of the 
earlier portraits, chiefly royal, are by unknown artists, and 
more curious than otherwise remarkable : the later portraits 
are not only interesting from those they commemorate, but 
are in many cases valuable as specimens of the English 
School of portrait-painters — Dobson, Riley, Richardson, Jer- 
vas, Michael Wright, Mary Beale, Godfrey Kneller, Wissing, 
Sarah Hoadley, Thomas Hudson, Hogarth, Hoare, Dance, 
Gainsborough, Reynolds, Romney, Opie, Hoppner, Wright 
of Derby, Hilton, Allan Ramsay, Hudson, Beachey, Rae- 
burn, Lawrence, Phillips, and Landseer. It is impossible 
(1877) to give more than an alphabetical guide to some 
of the more interesting pictures : — 

Joseph Addison; 1672— 1719.— 6'z> G. Kneller, 

George Monk, Duke of Albemarle, the restorer of Charles II. ; 1608 
—70. — Sir P. Lely. 

John Allen, historic writer ; 1770 — 1843. — Sir E. Landseer, 

Jeffrey, Lord Amherst, 17 17 — 1797. — Gainsborough. 

Anne of Denmark, wife of James I. ; 1575 — 1619. — Van Somer. 

Princess Anne (afterwards Queen); 1664 — 1717; with her son the 
Duke of Gloucester ; 1689 — 1700. — Dahl. 

Queen Anne. — Dahl. 

Sir Richard Arkwright ; 1 732 — 1 792. — Wright of Derby, 

Dr. Isaac Barrow, the theologian and mathematician; 1630 — 1677 ; 
a striking work of Claude Le Fevre. 

James Barry, the painter ; 1741 — 1806. — By himself. 

William Pulteney, Earl of Bath; 1682— 1764; a magnificent portrait 
by Sir y. Reynolds. 

Francis Bartolozzi, the engraver; 1730 — 18 13; a fine work of 
Opie. 



488 WALKS IN LONDON, 

■William Russell, 1st Duke of Bedford ; 1613 — 1700; a fine specimen 
of Sir G. Kneller. 

Jeremy Bentham, 1748 — 1832 ; as a boy. — T. Frye, 

Jeremy Bentham at 81 (painted 1829). — H. IV. Pickersgill, 

Thomas Bewick, 1758 — 1828 ; the wood engraver, aged 70.— 
Ramsay. 

Sir William Blackstone, the judge, author of the Commentaries; 
1723— 1780.— 5zy J. Reynolds. 

William Blake, the artist and engraver; 1757 — 1827; a noble portrait 
by T. Phillips. 

Thomas Blood, who attempted to murder the Duke of Ormonde, 
and stole the Regalia; 1628 — 1680. — Gerard Soest. 

Admiral Edward Boscawen ; 171 1 — I'j6l.—Siry. Reynolds, 

Elizabeth Barrett Browning, the poetess ; 1809 — 1861, in chalks.-— 
Field Talf&urd. 

Sir M. I. Brunei, who constructed the Thames Tunnel, which is seen 
in the background; 1769 — 1849. — Drumfnond. 

George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham; 1627 — 1687; a beautiful 
specimen of Sir P. Lely. 

Sir Francis Burdett, statesman and orator; 1770 - 1844. — T, 
Phillips. 

William Cecil, Lord Burghley, the minister of Elizabeth, painted at 
77, in 1597; 1521 — 1598.— i]/. Gheerardts. 

Right Hon. Edmund Burke ; 1729 — 1797. — School of Reynolds, 

Burnet, Bishop of Salisbury, the historian ; 1643 — I7I5- — Riley, 

Robert Bums, the poet ; 1759 — 1796. — Alex. Nastnyth. 

George, Lord Byi-on, the poet ; 1788— 1828.— r. Phillips. 

Charles Pratt, Lord Chancellor Camden; 17 13 — 1794; a fine work 
of Dance. 

Lord Chancellor Campbell, author of " Lives of the Chancellors ; " 
1779 — iZb\.— T. A. Woolnoth. 

Thomas Campbell, the poet; 1777— 1844. — Sir T. Lawrence. 

Sir Dudley Carleton, the diplomatist, afterwards Viscount Dorchester; 
1572 — 163 1. — Cornelius Jansen. 

Anne, Lady Carleton. — C. J arisen. 

Queen Caroline of Anspach, wife of George II. ; 1682 — 1737. — E, 
Seetnan. 

Caroline, Princess of Wales, wife of George TV.; 1682 — 1734; a 
sensuous portrait in a red dress and hat, painted at Blackheath by Sir 
T. Lawrence. 

Elizabeth Carter, the Greek scholar, 1717 — 1806, in crayons. — Sir 
T. Lawrence. 



'HE NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY, 489 

Catherine of Aragon, first wife of Henry VIII. ; 1485— 1536.— 

Unknown. 

Catherine of Braganza, wife of Charles II., 1638— 1 705, in the 
dress in which she arrived in England. — Stoop. 

Sir William Chambers, the architect; ilz^i—il^d.—Sir J. Reynolds. 

Sir Francis Chantrey, the sculptor ; 1782—1^41. -T. Phillips. 

Charles II. ; 1630— 1685.— J/rj. Beale. 

Princess Charlotte ; 1796— 1817.— (7. Dawe. 

Queen Charlotte, wife of George III. ; 1744— 1818.— ^/^a« Ramsay. 

William Pitt, Earl of Chatham ; 1708— 1778.— i?. Brompton. 

Philip Dormer, Earl of Chesterfield, author of the " Letters ; " 1694 
.^1773. — Hoare. 

Charles Churchill, the satirist; 1731— 1765.— 5<:Affa-&. 

Thomas Clarkson, who promoted the Abolition of the Slave Trade ; 
1760 — 1846. — De Breda. 

Barbara Villiers, Duchess of Cleveland ; 1640— 1709.— -SjV P, Lely. 

Robert, Lord Clive; 1725— 1774.— Z)a«c<?. 

Richard Cobden; 1804— 1865. — L. Dickinson, 

PUchard Temple, Viscount Cobhara, the friend of Pope, oh, 1759; a 
capital work of Vajiloo. 

Samuel Taylor Coleridge, the poet; l^^2^ iZ^^.— Washington 
Alston. 

The same, in his 23rd year. — M. Vandyke. 

George Colman, the dramatist ; 1733 — 1794. — Gainsborough, 

William Congreve, the dramatist ; 1669 — 1729. — Sir G. Kneller, 

Captain J. Cook, the navigator; 1728— 1779.— J''. Webber. 

Sir Eyre Coote ; 1726— 1783. — Unknown. 

Charles, Earl Cornwallis ; 1738 — iSo^.— Gainsborough. 

Richard Cosway, the miniature painter; 1 741 — 1782. — By himself, 

Abraham Cowley, the poet; 1618 — 1667. — Mrs. Beale. 

William, ist Earl of Craven; i6o6 — i6()'j.—Honthorst. 

Richard Cumberland, the dramatist; 1732 — 181 1. — Romney. 

Erasmus Darwin, physician and poet; 1731 — 1802. — Wright of 
Derby. 

Moll Davis, an actress beloved by Charles 11. — Sir P. Lely. 

Thomas De Quincey, author of " Confessions of an Opium Eater;" 
1785— 1859.— 67r Watson Gordon. 

Charles Dickens, the novelist; 1812 — 1870. — Ary Scheffer. 

Charles Dibdin, the song-writer; 1745 — 1813. — T. Phillips. 

William Dobson, " The British Tintoret ;" 16 10— 1646. — By himself, 

Charles Sackville, Earl of Dorset, the Patron of Dryden; 1637— 
1706.— 6'i>- G. Kneller, 



490 WALKS IN LONDON, 

John Dryden, the poet; Ydii—i^QO.—Mauhert, 

John Dunning, afterwards Lord Ashburton; 1731 — 1783. — Sir y. 
Reynolds. 

Elizabeth, Queen of Bohemia, daughter of James I. ; 1596— 1662. — 
Mireveldt. 

John Flaxman, the sculptor, 1755— 1826, modelling the bust of his 
friend Hayley, whose son is introduced. — Romney. 

Benjamin Franldin; 1 706 — 1790. — French School. 

David Garrick, actor and author; 1716— 1779.— i?. E. Pine, 

George II. ; 1683 — 1 760; full-length, at the time of his accession. — 
Michael Dahl. 

William Hogarth, 1697— 1764, painting the Muse of Comedy, a 
small full-length, by himself. 

James Hogg, the Ettrick Shepherd; i^ji— 1^1$.— Denning. 

Rev. John Home, 1724— 1808, author of "Douglas" — a noble 
portrait by Sir Henry Raeburn. 

John Howard, the philanthropist ; 1726— 1790. — Mather Brown, 

Leigh Hunt, the essayist; 1784 — 1859. — Haydon. 

Sir Elijah Impey, Chief Justice in India; \liz—\^Of^.—Zoffany. 

Henry Ireton, the son-in-law of Cromwell; \(iio—\(i^\ .— Walker . 

Rev. Edward Irving, founder of the "Catholic and Apostolic 
Church ; " 1792 — 1834.— A sketch by Slater, 

James I. as a boy; 1566— 1625. — Zucchero, 

James I. in robes of state. — Van Somer, 

James 11. ; 1633— 170 1. — Riley. 

Lord Chancellor Jeffreys, the cruel judge, 1648 — 1689, as Recorder 
of London. — Sir G. Kneller. 

Henry, Lord Jermyn, afterwards Earl of St. Albans, the friend of 
Henrietta Maria, oh. 1683. — Sir P. Lely. 

Angelica Kauffmann ; 1740—1807.—^ herself. 

John Keats, the poet ; 1795—1821 ; a small full-length seated figure, 
reading, by Severn. 

John Philip Kerable, the tragedian; il^'j—xZi^.—GilheH Stuart. 

Augustus, Viscount Keppel, admiral; 1727 — 1786; a noble work of 
Sir y. Reynolds. 

John Lambert, General of the Parliamentary forces ; 1620— 1694. — 
Walker. 

Henry, 3rd Marquis of Lansdowne; 1 780— 1863; a beautiful picture 
by Hopp7ier. 

David Livingstone, the African traveller ; 1813 — 1873; a sketch by 
y. Bonomi. 

George II. in middle Ufe, with Westminster Abbey in the distance 
— Skackleton. 



THE NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY, 491 

George II., aged 70. — 7". Worlidge. 

George III. ; 1738 — 1820. — Allan Ramsay, 

George IV. ; 1762— 1830 ; a study for the profile on the coinage. — 
Sir T. Lawrence. 

Prince George of Denmark, husband of Queen Anne; 1658— 1708. 
"^ Wis sing, 

John Gibson, the sculptor; 1791 — 1866. — Mrs. Carpenter, 

Oliver Goldsmith, the poet; 1728— 1774; a portrait which belonged 
to himself. — School of Reynolds, 

Thomas Gray, the poet ; 17 16 — 1 77 1 ; sketclftd from memory by his 
biographer. — William Mason. 

William Wyndham, Lord Grenville ; 1759 — 1834 ; a beautiful portrait 
by Hoppner. 

Sir Thomas Gresham, founder of the Royal Exchange ; 15 19 — 1579 ; 
a grand portrait by Sir Antonio More. 

Sir Harbottle Grimston, Speaker, and Master of the Rolls ; 1602 — 
1683.— 5«r P. Lely. 

Nell Gwynne, beloved by Charles II. ; 1640— 1691. — Sir P, Lely, 

Emma Hart, Lady Hamilton ; a sketch by Romney. 

George Frederick Handel; 1684 — 1759. — Hudson (the master of 
Sir J. Reynolds). 

James Harris, author of "Philosophical Essays;" 1709 — 1780. 
'^Romney, after Reynolds. 

Warren Hastings, First Governor-General of India ; 1733 — 18 18 ; a 
noble work of Sir T. Lawrence. 

Lord Heathfield, the Defender of Gibraltar; 171 7 — 1790. — Copley. 

Sir William Herschel ; 1738— 1822.— ^^&<?^. 

Benjamin Hoadly, Bishop of Winchester; 1676 — 1761. — Mrs. Hoadly. 

Thomas Hobbes,* the philosopher, aged 81 ; 1588 — 1679 ; a very fine 
work of y. M. Wright. 

John Locke, the philosopher; 1632 — 1704. — Brow'nover. 

Alexander Wedderbum, Lord Loughborough, Lord Chancellor; 
1733—1805.— ^. Owen. 

Simon Eraser, Lord Lovat, beheaded ; 1668 — 1747. — Hogarth. 

"When Lord Lovat was brought from Scotland, to be tried in 
London, Hogarth, having previously known him, went to meet him at 
St. Albans, for the purpose of taking his portrait, and at the ' White 
Hart ' in that town, found the hoary peer under the hands of his 
barber. The old nobleman rose to salute him, according to the Scotch 
and French fashion, with so much eagerness, that he left a large portion 
of the lather from his beard on the face of his old friend. He is drawn 
in the attitude of enumerating by his fingers the rebel forces — * such a 
general had so many men,' " &c. — J. Ireland, 



492 WALKS IN LONDON, 

George, Earl of Macartney, 1737 — 1806, conferring with his secre- 
tary, Sir E. Staunton. — Abbott. 

Sir James Mackintosh; 1765 — 1832. — Sir T. Lawrence, 

William, Earl of Mansfield, Lord Chief Justice; 1704— 1793.— 
Copley. 

John, Duke of Marlborough ; 1 650 — 1722. — Wyck, 

Piincess Mary, afterwards Mary I.; 15 16 — 1558; a curious portrait 
painted in 1544. — Unknown. 

Queen Mary of Modena, wife of James II. ; 1658 — 17 18. — Wissing, 

Queen Mary II., wife of William III. ; 1662 — 1694. — Wissing. 

Mary, Queen of Scots ; 1542— 1587. " The Eraser Tytler Portrait,'* 
m a rich dress, by a Erench artist. — Unknown. 

The same, in a widow's dress, painted during her captivity at Shef- 
field.— P. Oudry. 

Richard Mead the great physician; 1673 — 1754. — Allan Ramsay. 

Mary Russell Mitford, authoress of " Our Village " ; 1786— 1855.— 
J. Lucas. 

James, Duke of Monmouth, 1649 — 1685, son of Charles 11. and 
Lucy Waters ; beheaded. — Wissing. 

Hannah More, the rehgious writer, 1745 — ^^SS* painted at 77.— 
H. W. Pickersgtll. 

George Morland the artist ; 1763 — 1804. — By himself, 

Arthur Murphy the dramatist ; 1727 — 1805. — Dance 

Admiral Lord Nelson ; 1737— 1823. — Filger. 

The same.— /^ Z. Abbott. 

Joseph Nollekens the sculptor; 1737—1823.—/^. L. Abbott* 

The same, as an old man. — y. Lonsdale. 

James Northcote the painter; 1746 — 183 1. — Northcote. 

Anne Oldfield the actress ; 1683 — 1730. — Richardson. 

John Opie the portrait painter; 1761 — 1807. — By himself. 

Henrietta, Duchess of Orleans, 1644 — 1670, youngest daughter of 
Charles I., wife of the only brother of Louis XIV. — Mignard. 

James Butler, 1st Duke of Ormond, Lord High Steward; i6k) — 
1688.— ^zr P. Lely. 

James, 2nd Duke of Ormond; 1665 — 1745. — Dahl. 

William Paley, author of the "Evidences"; 1743— 1805. — Sir W, 
Beechey, after Romney. 

Samuel Parr the great scholar; 1747 — 1825. — Dawe. 

Henry Pelham the minister; 1696 — 1754. — Hoare. 

Mary, Countess of Pembroke; 1550 — 162 1 ; a very interesting 
picture. — Marc Gheerardts. 

Samuel Pepys, author of the " Diary " ; 1632 — 1703. — Hayes, 



THE NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY. 49J 

Spencer Perceval the Prime Minister, 1762 — 1812, assassinated in 
the lobby of the House of Commons. — Joseph. 

Sir Thomas Picton, 1758— 18 15, killed at Waterloo.— ^ir M. A, 
Shee. 

Oliver Plunkett, Archbishop of Armagh, 1629 — 1681, executed at 
Tyburn. — G. Murphy. 

Alexander Pope the poet; 1688 — 17 14; in crayons. — Hoare, 

The same, with Martha Blount.— y^frz/oj. 

Joseph Priestley the philosopher ; 1 733 — 1 804 ; in crayons. — Sharpies. 

Matthew Prior, poet and statesman; 1664 — 1721. — Richardson. 

Francis Quarles, author of the "Emblems"; 1592 — 1644. — 
W. D oh son. 

Catherine, Duchess of Queensberry, Prior's ♦* Kitty ever young," — 
Jervas. 

Sir Stamford Raffles ; xi^l—i^zd.— Joseph. 

Sir Walter Raleigh, 1552 — 1618, beheaded at Westminster. — 
Zucchero. 

Sir Joshua Reynolds ; 1723 — 1792 ; a magnificent eflFect of light and 
shadow. — By himself. 

Samuel Rogers the poet; 1763 — 1855; in chalks. — Sir T. Law- 
rence. 

Rt. Hon. George Rose, statesman and political writer; 1744 — 1818; 
a noble portrait by Sir W. Beechey, 

Louis Francis Roubiliac the sculptor, 1695 — 1762, modelling his 
statue of Shakspeare. — Carpentiers. 

William, Lord Russell, the patriot; 1641 — 1683; beheaded. — Riley. 

Rachel, Lady Russell, daughter of Wriothesley, Earl of Southamp- 
ton, and widow of the patriot ; 1636— 1 723. — Sir G. Kneller. 

William Sancroft, Archbishop of Canterbury; 16 16 — 1693; in 
crayons. — E. Lutterel. 

Sir Walter Scott the poet and novelist; 1771 — 1832. — Graham 
Gilbert. 

The same, a sketch at Abbotsford. — Sir E. Landseer. 

The same, in his study at Abbotsford ; his last portrait. — Sir W. 
Allan. 

William Shakspeare; 1564— 1616. "The Chandos Portrait." It 
belonged to Sir W. Davenant, Betterton, Mrs. Barry, Mr. Kirk, Mr. 
Nicolls, the Duke of Chandos, and the Duke of Buckingham and 
Chandos. It was bought by Lord Ellesmere at the Stowe sale for 
355 guineas and presented by him to the gallery. — Burbage or Taylor, 

WiUiam Petty, Earl of Shelbume, ist Marquis of Lansdowne; 
1737— 1805.— ^z> 7. Reynolds. 



494 WALKS IN LONDON. 

■William Shenstone the poet ; 1714 — 1763. — E, Alcock. 

Anne Brudenell, Countess of Shrewsbury, oh. 1702. — Sir P. Lely. 

Sarah Siddons the actress ; 1755 — i^ii.—Sir W. Beechey. 

The Electress Sophia, 1630 — 17 14, granddaughter of James I. and 
mother of George I. — Honthorst. 

Henry Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton, 1573 — 1624, the friend 
of Shakspeare. — Mireveldt. 

Robert Southey the poet ; 1774— 1843 ; a sketch in 1804. — Edridge. 

The same, painted in 1796. — M. Vandyke. 

James, ist Earl Stanhope; 1673—1721.-6'/?- G. Kneller. 

Charles, 3rd Earl Stanhope ; 1753 — 1816. — Ozias Humphrey. 

Thomas Stanley, historian of philosophy; 1625 — 1678. — Sir P, 
Lely. 

Richard Steele, essayist and dramatist; 167 1 — 1729. — Richardson. 

Thomas Stothard the artist; 1755— 1834. — J. Green. 

Joseph Strutt the antiquary; 1749— 1802. — Ozias Humphrey. 

Prince Charles Edward Stuart, 1720 — 1788, as a boy. — Largilliere. 

Prince Charles Edward Stuart, the young Chevalier; 1720 — 1788. — 
Pompeo Battoni, 

Louisa, Countess of Albany, wife of Prince Charles Edward ; 1752 — 
1824. — Pompeo Battoni. 

Prince James Stuart, son of James II. and Mary of Modena, called 
by some James III., by others "the Old Pretender; " 1684 — 1737. — 
Alexis Simeon Belle. 

The same. — Mengs. 

Henry Benedict Stuart, younger brother of Prince Charlie; 1725 — 
1807. — Largilliere. 

The same, as Cardinal York. — Pompeo Battoni. 

Jonathan Swift, Dean of St. Patrick's; 1667— 1745. — Jervas. 

Sir William Temple the diplomatist ; 1628 — 1699. — Sir P. Lely, 

James Thomson the poet; 1700 — 1748. — Baton. 

Lord Chancellor Thurlow ; 1732— 1806.— 71 Phillips. 

John Tillotson, Archbishop of Canterbury; 1630 — 1694. — Mrs. 
Beale. 

John Home Tooke the politician ; 1736 — 18 12. — Hardy. 

George Byng, 1st Viscount Torrington; 1663 — 1733. — Sir G, 
Kneller. 

Patrick Eraser Tytler the historian ; 1791 — 1849. — Mrs. Carpenter. 

Peter Martyr Vermilius, the Reformed preacher at Oxford in time 
of Edward VI. ; 1500— 1562.— ZTawj Asper. 

William Wake, Archbishop of Canterbury ; 1657 — 1737. — Gibson, 

WiUiam Waller the poet; 1605 — 1687. — Riley, 



rHE NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY. 495 

Sir Robert Walpole, 1st Earl of Orford, the Prime Minister ; 1676— 
1745. — Vanloo. 

Horace Walpole, 4th Earl of Orford, the author; 17 1 7— 1797.— 
N. Hone. 

William Warburton, Bishop of Gloucester; 1698— 1779.— C 
Phillips. 

General George Washington; 1732— 1799; in crayons.— ifrx. 
Sharpies. 

James Watt the engineer; 1736—1819.—/?^ Breda. 

Isaac Watts, author of the Hymns ; 1674— 1748. — Sir G. Kneller, 

The 1st Duke of Wellington; 1769— 1852. — Count D' Or say. 

Rev. John Wesley ; 1703— 1 791 ; aged 63. — Hone. 

The same, aged 85. — W. Hamilton. 

Benjamin West the historical painter; i-Ji^— 1^20.— Gilbert Stuart. 

Rev. George Whitefield, preaching ; 17 14 — 1770. — y. Woolaston. 

WilHam Wilberforce the philanthropist; 1759— 1833.— ^i> T, 
Lawrence. 

Sir David Wilkie the painter ; 1785—1841.—.^ himself. 

William IH. as a boy of seven in a yellow dress; 1650 — 1702.— 
Cornelius Jansen. 

Sir Ralph Winwood the diplomatist ; 1564 — 161 7. — Mireveldt. 

General James Wolfe ; I'jzb—i'j sg.—Highmore. 

William Wordsworth the poet ; i']']0—i2>SO.—Pickersgill. 

Sh Christopher Wren the architect ; 1632 — 1723. — Sir G. Kneller. 

Joseph Wright of Derby the portrait painter; 1734 — 1797. — By 
himself. 

Anne Hyde, Duchess of York, mother of Mary II. and Anne; 1637 
— 1671.— 5z> P. Lely. 

John ZofFany the painter ; 1733 — 1 8 10. — By himself, 

A room attached to this gallery contains a number of 
electrotype casts from the tombs in Westminster Abbey. 
A fine bronze bust of Charles I. is by Fanelli ; a terra-cotta 
bust of Cromwell is by Pierce. 

A little higher up the Exhibition Road is the entrance of 
The India Museum, 

Admittance, Mondays and Saturdays \s. : on all other days dd. 
The galleries on the ground-floor are occupied by objects 



496 WALKS IN LONDON, 

illustrative of the Natural Products, Minerals, and Zoology 
of India. On the upper-floor are specimens of Indian 
Manufactures. In Room IX. are the principal curiosities, 
which were formerly shown at the East .India House — 
Runjeet Singh's golden throne, and Tippoo Saib's Tiger, 
taken at Seringapatam, which was made by mechanism to 
growl, and the Englishman it is supposed to be devouring, 
to scream, for his amusement. The passage by which the 
lower galleries are reached is occupied by the curious sculp- 
tures brought in 1845 from the Amravati Tope on the river 
Kistna in the district of Guntoor in Madras. 

The dull Horticultural Gardens occupy the site of those 
of Loudon and Wise, whose collection of trees and shrubs 
was so much eulogised by Evelyn. To the south-west 
of these, at the junction of Cromwell Road and Gloucester 
Road, stood Gloucester Lodge, built for the Duchess of 
Gloucester and inhabited by Princess Sophia, and after- 
wards by George Canning. It was pulled down in 1852. 

Returning to the Brompton Road, we find the Fulham 
Road running southwards. On the right is Onslow Square, 
which retains a portion of the fine avenue which once 
expended from the grounds of Cowper House to the Fulham 
Road, where it terminated opposite Hollis Place. 

The Consumptive Hospital^ at the south-east corner of 
Onslow Square, occupies part of the grounds of Sydenham 
Edwards, the editor of the Botanical Register, which 
o^rounds existed till 1844. The perfectly countrified aspect 
of Brompton at this time is described by Lord Lytton in his 
novel of *' Godolphin." 

Streets- are rapidly increasing along the Fulham Road, 
which a short time ago ran entirely through nursery-grounds. 



FULHAM. 497 

The famous Brompton Park Nursery lasted from the time 
of James II. to that of the Exhibition of 1851.'^ Evelyn 
describes "its noble assembly of trees, evergreens, &c." 
The Brompton Stock is a memorial of its celebrity. 

On the right are The Boltotis, where forty years ago six 
brace of partridges used to rise in a morning, now regularly 
laid out with villas, much frequented by artists. 

[The road leads through Walham Green to Fulham, which, 
though four miles from Hyde Park Corner, requires a 
cursory mention here as the home of the Bishops of 
London. 

Fulbam, which, according to Camden, means " the place 
of fowles," but, according to most authorities, " the place 
of dirt," is a pretty antiquated village with a wooden 
bridge over the Thames. The Inn of the Golden Lion 
existed in the time of Henry VII., and was for some time 
the residence of Bishop Bonner. At another tavern, the 
King's Arms, the Fire of London was annually commemo- 
rated on September i, in honour of its having given refuge 
to a number of city fugitives. The perpendicular Church 
of All Saints, which stands near the river, contains a great 
number of interesting monuments. We may especially 
notice that of John Viscount Mordaunt of Avalon, father of 
the great Earl of Peterborough, ob. 1675, by Bushnell, 
sculjitor of the figures on Temple Bar, with a statue by 
Bird ; the noble monument by Gibbons to Dorothy Hyliard, 
1695, wife of Sir W. Clarke, Secretary at War to Charles II., 
and afterwards of Samuel Barrow, physician to the same, 
author of the Latin verses prefixed to " Paradise Lost ; " the 
simple altar tomb of Sir William Butts, 1545, the physician 

• The Builder. September 4, 1875. 
VOL. IT. . K K 



498 WALKS IN LONDON, 

to Henry VIII., mentioned by Shakspeare; the quaint 
monument of Margaret, wife of Sir Peter Legh of Lyme, 
1603, and her two babies ; the mural monuments of Thomas 
Carlos, 1665, son of the Colonel Careless who hid Charles II. 
in the oak, and was allowed to change his name to Carlos 
as a reward; of Thomas Smith, Master of Requests to 
James I., 1609; of Bishop Gibson, 1748; Bishop Porteus, 
1809 ; and Bishop Blomfield, 1857. An admirable Flemish 
brass commemorates Margaret Swanders, 1529. In the 
churchyard are the monuments of Sir Francis Child, 17 13, 
and of Theodore Hook, 1841. On the eastern side of 
the church are the tombs of a number of the bishops 
(beginning at the church wall) — Lowth, 1787 ; Terrick, 
1777; Randolph, 1813; Gibson, 1748; Sherlock, 1761 ; 
Compton, 1713; Hayter, 1762; Robinson, 1723. Near 
the tomb of his patron, Bishop Compton, lies Richard 
Fiddes, author of the Life of Cardinal Wolsey. In the 
grave of Bishop Lowth rests his friend Wilson, Bishop of 
Bristol, 1792. 

A drive through an avenue, or (from the church) a raised 
causeway called " the Bishop's Walk," leads to Fulham 
Palace, the ancient manor-house of the Bishops of London. 
A gateway is the approach to a quaint picturesque court- 
yard surrounded by low buildings of red and black bricks, 
erected by Bishop Fitzjames in the reign of Henry VII. 
The interior of the palace is unimportant, though the 
Library contains a number of episcopal portraits, including 
that of Bishop Ridley, whose four years' residence here is 
one of the most interesting periods in the history of the 
palace. Under his hospitable roof the mother and sister of 
his predecessor, Bonner, continued to reside, ever-welcome 



FULHAM PALACE, 



499 



guests at his table, where the place of honour was always 
reserved for " our mother, Bonner." The palace gardens 
were filled with rare shrubs by Bishop Grindal, who was a 
great gardener : they still contain a very fine cork-tree. A 
picturesque garden-gateway bears the arms of Bishop Fitz- 
James. The Chapel, in the garden, was built by Butterfteld 
for Bishop Tait, 1867. 




Courtyard, Fulham Palace. 



In the water-meadows and on the river banks, near 
Fulham Palace, may be recognised many of the familiar 
subjects in the pictures of De Wint, who repeated them 
over and over again. In ascending the river to Fulham a 
perfect gallery of De Wints is seen. 

Near the palace is Craven Cottage, much admired when 
it was built by Lady Craven, afterwards Margravine of 
Anspach. At Parson's Green, a hamlet of Fulham, lived 



500 WALKS IN LONDON. 

Lord Mordaunt, whose tomb is in the church, and his 
son, the famous Earl of Peterborough. Peterborough 
House has been rebuilt. On the same side of the green 
Samuel Richardson lived trom 1755 to his death in 
1 761.1 



INDEX. 



Academy, Royal, i. 42, 74 

Aldermanbury, i. 231 
Aldgate, i. 345 
Alley, Change, i. 362 

Cranborne, ii. 7 

Duck's Foot, i. 430 

Great Kell, i. 247 

Gunpowder, i. 113 

Half-Moon, i. 301 

Hope and Anchor, i. 418 

Panyer, i. 158 
Almack s, ii. 68 

Almonry, The Westminster, ii. 371 
Almshouses, Countess of Kent's, i. 217 

Emery Hill's, ii. 400 

Lady Dacre's, ii. 437 

Palmer's, ii. 396 

Sir A.*Judde's, i. 295 

Sir J. JMilborne's, i. 347 

Vandun's, ii. 398 
Alsatia, i. 114 
Arcade, Burlington, ii. 78 
Arch, Green Park, ii. 113 

Marble, ii. 100 
Artillery Ground, i. 303 
Astley's Amphitheatre, ii. 404 
Austin Friars, i. 277 

B. 

Bank, Child's, i. io2 

Coutts', i. 18 

of England, i. 256 

Gosling's, i. 102 

Hoare's, i. 102 
Bankside, i. 459 
Barbican, i. 272 
Bath, Cold Bath, i. 212 

Lord Essex's, i. 37 

Queen Anne's, ii. 160 

K Oman, in the Strand, i. 37 
Battersea, ii. 448 
Bayswater, ii. 104 
Bedfordbury, i. 19 
Belgravia, ii. xo8 



Bermondsey, i. 468 
Bethnal Green, i. 3x7 
Bevis Marks, i. 319 
Billingsgate, i. 422 
Blackfriars, i. 438 
Bloomsbury, ii. 163 
Boltons, the, ii. 497 

Brewery, Barclay and Perkins's, i. 4<57 
Truman, Hanbury, and Buxton'^ i. 

314 
Bridewell, i. 116 
Bridge, Albert, the, ii. 450 

Battersea, ii. 448 

Blackfriars, i. 438 

New Chelsea, ii. 450 

London, i. 447 

South wark, i. 434 

Waterloo, i. 474 

Westminster, ii. 406 
Brokenwharf, i. 436 
Bucklersbury, i. 250 
Buildings, Beaufort, i. 28 

Craven, i. 93 

Cripplegate, i. 273 

Pitt's, ii. 462 

Southampton, ii. 191 

Westmoreland, i. 264 
Bunhill Fields, i. 303 



Camden Town, i, 221 

Canonbury, i. 217 

Castle Baynard, i. 43J 

Cartoons, the, ii.482 

Cathedral, St. George's, Roman Catholic^ 
ii. 405 
St. Paul's, 1. 128 

Cemetery, Bunhill Fields, i. 30^ 
Friends', i. 312 
Kensal Green, ii. 143 
St. George, Hanover Square, ii. 104 
St. George the Martyr, ii. 187 
St. Giles in the Fields, ii. 147 

Chamber, Jerusalem, ii. 361 

Chambers, Albany, ii. 73 



502 



INDEX. 



Chambers, Crosby Hall, 5. 287 

Chapel, of Chelsea Hospital, ii. 427 
Clement's Inn, i. 44 
Foundling Hospital, ii. 187 
Fulham Palace, ii.499 

Chapel, Grosvenor, ii. 96 
Lambe's, i. 217 
of Lambeth Palace, ii. 417 
Lincoln's Inn, i. 84 
Marlborough Gardens, ii. 53 
the Mercers', i. 243 
Moravian, i. 107 
Orange Street, ii. 128 
of the Pyx, ii. 353 
Rolls, i. 79 

Royal of St. James's, ii. 59 
Royal of Whitehall, ii. 217 
St. Catherine's, Regent's Park, ii. 140 
St. Catherine's, Westminster, ii. 358 
St. Etheldreda, ii. 200 
St. John in the Tower, i. 392 
St. Patrick, Solio, ii. 151 
St. Peter ad Vincula, i. 490 
St. Stephen, Westminster, ii. 374 
St. Thomas of Aeon, i. 244 
Sardinian, i. 91 
Serjeants' Inn, i. 79 
Spa Fields, i. 212 

Chapter House, Westminster, ii. 347 

Charterhouse, the, i. 194 

Cheapside, i. 223 

Chelsea, ii. 425 

Chichester Rents, i. 82 

Church, Allhallows, Barking, i. 363 
Allhallows, Bread Street, i. 324 
Allhallows the Great, i. 431 
Allhallows, Lombard Street, i. 335 
Allhallows in the Wall, i. 276 
All Saints, Fulham, ii. 497 
All Saints, Margaret Street, ii. 148 
All Souls, Langham Place, ii. 139 
Austin Friars, i. 277 
Chelsea Old, ii. 434 
Holy Trinity, Minories, i. 415 
Irvingite, ii. 184 
Martyrs' Memorial, i. 213 
St. Alban, Holborn, ii. 193 
St. Alban, Wood Street, i. 229 
St. Alphege, London Wall, i, 275 
St. Andrew, Holborn, ii. 193 
St. Andrew, Wells Street, ii. 149 
St. Andrew Undershaft, i. 357 
St. Anne, Soho, ii. 132 
St. Anne in the Willows, i. 259 
St. Antholin's, i. 328 
St. Augustine, i. 326 
St. Bartholomew the Great, i. 182 
St. Bartholomew the Less, i. 189 
St. Bartholomew, by the Exchange, 

i. 429 
St. Benet, Paul's Wharf, i. 437 
St. Botolph, Aldersgate, i. 260 
St. Botolph, Aldgate, i. 347 
St. Botolph, Bishopsgate, i. 298 
St. Bride, i. 118 



Church, St. Catherine Colemaa, i. )40 

St. Catherine Cree, i. 354 

St. Clement Danes, i. 41 

St. Clement, Eastcheap, i. 332 

St. Dionis Backchurch, i. 336 

St. Dunstan in the I- ast, i. 423 

St. Dunstan in the West, i. 106 

St. Dunstan, Stepney, i. 351 

St. Edmund, i. 335 

St. Ethelburga, i, 298 

St. Faith, i. 132 

St. Gabriel, i. 336 

St. George, Bloomsbury, ii. 183 

St. George, Hanover Square, ii. 138 

St. George, Southwark, i. 466 

St. Giles, Cripplegate, i. 269 

St. Giles in the Fields, ii. 155 

St. Gregory, i. 132 

St. Helen's, Great, i. 288 

St. Tames, Clerkenwell, i. 209 

St. James, Garlickhithe, i. 435 

St. James, Piccadilly, ii. 71 

St. John, Clerkenwell, i. 203 

St. John the Evangelist, ii. 190 

St. John, Westminster, ii. 399 

St. Lawrence, Jewry, i. 234 

St. Leonard, Shoreditch, i. 315 

St. Magnus, i. 429 

St. Margaret, Lothbury, i. 257 

St. Margaret Pattens, i. 336 

St. Margaret, Westminster, ii. 391 

St. Martin in the Fields, ii. 2 

St. Martin, Ludgate, i. 125 

St. Mary, Abchurch, i. 331 

St. Mary, Aldermanbury, i. 

St. Mary Aldermary, i. 3-t) 

St. Mary, Battersea, ii. 448 

St. Mary le Bone, ii. 142 

St. Mary le Bow, i. 232 

St. ]\lary at Hill, i. 424 

St. Mary, Islington, i. 217 

St. Mary, Kennington, ii. 462 

St. Mary, Lambeth, ii. 407 

St. Mary Overy, i. 450 

St. Mary, Soho, ii. 153 

St. Mary le Strand, i. 38 

St. Mary, Whitechapel, i. 349 

St, Mary Woolnoth, i. ly-, 

St. Mary Magdalen, Old Fish Street, 

i. 32.3 
St. Michael, i. 434 
St. Michael Bassishaw, i. 273 
St. Michael, Cornhill, i. 361 
St. Michael le Quern, i. 157 
St. Michael, Queenhithe, 1. 436 
St. Michael, Wood Street, i. 228 
St. Mildred, Bread Street, i. 324 
St. Mildred, Poultry, i. 249 
St. Nicholas Cole Abbey, i. 323 
St. Olave, Hart Street, i. 341 
St. Olave, Old Jewry, i. 246 
St. Pancras in the Fields, ii. 143 
St. Pancras, New Road, ii. 143 
St. Paul, Covent Garden, i. 22 
St. Peter, Clerkenwell, i. 213 



INDEX, 



503 



Churcb, St. Peter, Cortihill, i. 361 
St. Peter, Paul's Wharf, i. 43/ 
St. Saviour, Southwark, i. 450 
St. Sepulchre, i. 169 
St. Stephen, Coleman Street, 1. 247 
St. Stephen, Walbrook, i. 255 
St. Stephen, "Westminster, ii. 400 
St. Swithin, i. 329 
St Vedast, i. 22b 
Temple, i. 63 „ . . 

Churchyard, Allhallows Staining, i. 

337 

St. Anne, Soho, 11. 132 

St. Giles, ii. 155 

St. Giles, Cripplegate, 1. 270 

St. Martin's, ii. 4 

St. Margaret, Westminster, ii. 398 

St, Matthew, Friday Street, i. 230 

St. Pancras, ii. 145 

St. Pancras in Pancras Lane, i. 242 

St. Paul's, i. 156 

St. Stephen's, i. 246 
Circus. Finsbury, i. 301 

Piccadilly, ii. 124 
Clerkenwell, i. 206 
Cloisters, Charterhouse, i. 194 

Grey Friars, i. 164 

Westminster, ii. 354 
Close, Bartholomew, i. igt 
Club, Army and Navy, ii 

Arthur's, ii. 67 

Athenaeum, ii. 48 

Beefsteak, i. 21 

Boodle's, ii. 68 

Brooks', ii. 68 

Carlton, ii. 49.. 

Conservative, ii. 67 

Garrick, i. 135 

Guards', ii. 49 

Kit Kat, i. 104 

Literary, ii. 51, 13' 

Naval and Military, ii. 82 

New University, ii. 68 

Oxford and Cambridge, ii. 49 

Reform, ii. 48 

Travellers', ii. 48 

United Service, ii. 47 

White's, ii. 69 
Cockpit, the, il. 223 
Coffee-house, Button's, 1,27 

Chapter, i. 156 

Don Saltero's, ii. 431 

Garaway's, i. 362 

Jonathan's, i. 362 
-loyd's, i. 253 

Tom's, i. 27 

Will's, i. 26 

White's Chocolate, ii. 69 
Cold Harbour, i. 430 
College, Gresham, i. 296 

Heralds', i. 155 

of Physicians, i. 158 

St. Spirit and St. Maiy, i. 434 

Sion, i. 274 

oi Surgeons, i. 95 



College, University, ii. 164 
Column, Duke of York's, ii. 48 

Nelson, ii. i 

Westminster Memorial, ii. 400 
Common, Kensington, ii. 406 
Conduit, Bayswater, i. joo 

Comhill, i. 300 

Great, i. 224 

Little, i. 224 

St. James's, ii. 49 
Convent, Augustinian, i. 277 

Black Friars, i. 438 

Carthusian, i. 192 

Cluniac, i. 468 

Crossed Friars, i. 344 

Grey Friars, i. 162 

Poor Clares, i. 417 

Whitefriars, i. 114 
Comer, Hyde Park, ii. 107 . 

Pie, i. 172 

Poets', ii. 235 
Cottage, Craven, ii. 499 
Court, Brick, Temple, i. ^% 

Bolt, i. 112 

Cecil, ii. 7 

Crane, i. 108 

Devereux, i. 50 

Dorset, ii. 227 

Drury, i. 39 

Falcon, i. 107 

Flower de Luce, i. 108 

Founders', i. 256 

Fountain, Temple, i. 73 

Fox, ii. 191 

Green Arbour, i. 169 

Hare, i. 266 

Hare, Temple, i. 70 

Ingram, i. 336 

Johnson's, i. ii2 

Oxford, i. 256 

Poppin's, i. 114 

St. Martin's, i. 126 ; ii. 128 

St. Peter's, ii. 6 

Salisbury, i. 115 

Tanfield, Temple, i. 71 

Wine Office, i. 112 

White Hart, i, 333 
Court-room, Barber- Surgeons', i.262 
Covent Garden, i. 19 
Cripplegate, i. 268 
Cross, in Beech Lane, i. 268 

Charing, i. i 

Cheapside, i. 224 

St. Paul's, i. 151 
Crutched Friai s, i. 344 
Crypt, Bow Church, i. 23a 

Gerard's Hall, i. 323 

Guildhall, i. 240 

Lambeth Chapel, ii. 417 

St. James in the Wall, i. 337 

St. Michael, Aldgate, i. 345 

St. Paul's, i. 146 

St. Stephen's, Westminster, ii. 385 

Wes^minste^ Abbey, ii. 346 
Custom House, the, i. 421 



504 



INDEX, 



Deanery, St. Paul's, i. 155 

Westminster, ii. 360 
Docks, the, i. 418 
Domesday Book, i. 108 
Drive, the Queen's, ii. 107 



Entry, Church, 1. 442 
Exchange, the Coal, i. 423 

New, i. 16 

Royal, i, 251 

Stock, i. 256 

Wool, i. 246 
Exchequer, the, ii. 223 
Exhibition, Madame Tussaud's, !:. 98 



Fair, Bartholomew, i. 173 

Cloth, i. igo 

Milk, ii. 120 
Farm, Chalk, ii. 141 

Ebury, ii. 108 
Fields, Bonner's, i. 317 

Finsbury, i. 275 

The Five, ii. 109 

Spa, i. 212 
Fire Brigade, Metropolitan, i. 326 
Fountain, the Buxton, ii. 401 

of St. Lawrence, i. 334 

in the Temple, i. 73 

Trafalgar Square, i. I 
Friars, Austin, i. 277 
Fulham, ii. 497 
Fulwood's Rents, ii. 497 



Gallery of British Arti ts, ii. 45 

Grosvenor, ii. 79 

National, ii. 7 

National Portrait, ii. 486 
Gate, Aldgate, i. 345 

Aldersgate, i. 258 

Bishopsgate, i. 298 

Cripplegate, i. 268 

Ludgate, i. 123 

Newgate, i. 166 

?ueen Anne's, ii. 40X 
emple Bar, i. 51 
Storey's, ii. 401 
Gate House, Westminster, ii. 568 
Gateway of Essex House, i. 50 
King Street, ii. 204 
of Lincoln's Inn, i. 82 
of St. James's Palace, ii. 53 
St. John's, i. 200 
Temple, Inner, i. 61 
Temple, Middle, i. 6r 
Whitehall (Holbein's), ii. 2C4 
of York House, i. 14 



Gardens, Baldwin's, ii. 193 

Botanic (Chelsea),, ii. 429 

Brompton Nursery, ii. 497 

of Buckingham Palace, ii..II5 

of Chelsea Hospital, ii. 426 

Cremome, ii. 448 

of Gray's Inn, i. lOO 

of Holland House, ii. 472 

Horticultural, ii. 496 

Kensington, ii. 454 

of Lambeth Palace, ii. 420 

Marylebone, ii. 143 

Paris, i. 460 

Privy, ii. 220 

Ranelagh, ii. 428 

St. James's Palace, ii. 61 

Spring, ii. i2i 

Temple, i. 76 

Vauxhall, ii. 422 

Westminster College, ii, 358 

Zoological, ii. 141 
Great St. Helen's, i. 287 
Green, Kensington Palace, ii. 460 

Parson's, ii. 499 
Grey Friars, i. 162 
Grove, Lisson, ii. 142 

Westbourne, ii. 104 
Guildhall, the, i. 236 



Hackney, i. 317 

Hall, Agricultural, i. 215 

Albert, ii. 453 

Copped, ii. 422 

Crosby, i. 282 

the Egyptian, Mansion Hotuso, !• 354 

Exeter, i. 28 

the Flaxraan, ii. 164 

Gerard's, i. 323 

Hicks', i. IQ9 

Piccadilla, ii. 70 

the Welsh, i 240 

Westminster, ii. 380 
Halls of City Companies — 

Apothecaries', i. 440 

Armourers', i. 247 

Barber- Surgeons', i. 2&I 

Brewers', i. 230 

Carpenters', i. 276 

Clothworkers', i. 337 

Coopers', L 276 

Curriers', i. 273 

Cutlers', i. 433 

Drapers', i. 257 

Dyers', i. 432 

Fishmongers', i. 445 

Goldsmiths', i. 226 

Haberdashers', i. 230 

Ironmongers', i. 339 

Leathersellers', i. 295 

Mercers', i. 244 

Merchant Tailors', i. 28( 

Painter-Stainers', i. 435 

Parish Clerks', i. 435 



INDEX, 



50s 



Halls of City Companies — 

Bewterers', i. 336 

Pinners', i. 279 

Saddlers', i. 242 

Skinners', i. 432 

Stationers', i. 126 

Vintners', i. 434^ 
Hangman's Gains, 1. 418 
Haymarket, the, ii. 46 
Highbury Barn, i. 216 
Hill, College, i. 433 

Constitution, ii. 113 

Dowgate, i. 432 

Fish Street, 1. 424 
Hill, Hay, ii. 84 

Primrose, ii. 14X 

Snow, ii. 201 

St. Lawrence Poultney, i. 430 
Hockley in the Hole, i. 212 
Holborn, ii, 188 
Horse Guards, the, ii. 221 
Hospital, Bethlem, ii. 404 

Bridewell, i. 116 

Chelsea, ii. 425 

Christ's, i. 162 

Consumptive, ii. 496 

Foundling, the, ii. 185 

Guy's, i. 460 

King's College, i. 95 

St. Bartholomew's, i. 188 

St. Giles', ii. 154 

St. Katherine's, ii. 140 

St. Thomas's, ii. 406 
Houndsditch, i. 318 

House, of the Abbots of "Westminster, ii. 
360 

of Alderman Beckford, ii. 152 

of Alderman Boydell, i. 24a 

of Alderman Wood, ii. 15a 

Alford, ii. 452 

Ancaster, i. 91 

Apsley, ii. 109 

Aj-chbishop's, ii. 424 

Arlington, ii. 114 

Arklow, ii. 102 

Ashbumham, ii. 367 

Bacon, i. 265 

Bangor, i. 114 

of James Barry, ii. 148 

Bath, ii. 82 

Beaufort, ii. 431 

Berkeley, ii. 79 

of Miss Berry, ii. 8j 

of Bloomfield, i. 247 

Bourdon, ii. 88 

Bridgewater, ii. 61 

of Edmund Burke, ii. 131 

Burlington, ii. 73 

Burnet, i. 206 

of Dr. Burney, ii. 129 

of Byron (his birthplace), il. 99 

Cambridge, ii. 82 

Camden, ii. 460 

Canonbury, i. 219 

Carlisle, ii. 151 



House, Carlton, ii. 47 

of Thomas Carlyle, ii. 447 

of Lord Castlereagh, ii. 50 

of Chantrey, ii. 82 

Chesterfield, ii. 94 

of Sir R. Clayton, i. 246 

Cleveland, ii. 50 

of Lord Clive, ii. 87 

of Commons, ii. 387 

of Cosway, ii. 51 

of Cowley, i. 106 

of Mrs. Cromwell, ii. 226 

of the De la Poles, i. 430 

Devonshire, ii. 79 

of Earls of Devonshire, i. JfSt 

Dorchester, ii. 106 

of Drayton, i. 106 

Dniry, i. 92 

of Dryden, ii. 130, 134 

Dudley, ii. 106 

Durham, i. 15 

East India, i. 360 

Falconberg, ii. 151 

Fife, ii. 219 

of Flaxman, ii. 149 

Foley, ii. 139 

of Sir P. Francis, ii. 50 

of Fuseli, ii. 6 

of Gainsborough, ii. 51 

Gloucester, ii. 82 

of Goldsmith, i. 169 

of Gondomar, i. 348 

Goring, ii. 114 

Gresham, i. 251, 273 

Grosvenor, ii. 91 

of Nell Gwynne, ii. 50 

of Hans Jacobsen, i. 348 

Harcourt, ii. 99 

Haunted, in Berkeley Square, ii. 87 

Hertford, ii. 98 

of Hogarth, ii. 127 

Holland, ii. 463 

of John Hunter, ii, 127 

of Lady Huntingdon, i. 2X8 

Kensington, ii. 462 

Kent, ii. 451 

of Kosciusko, ii. 127 

Lansdowne, ii. 84 

Lauderdale, i. 266 

of the Duke of Leeds, iL 49 

Leicester, ii. 125 

of Linacre, i. 329 

Lindsey, i. 91 

Lindsey (Chelsea), ii. 446 

London, i. 266 

of Lords, ii. 388 

of Lord Macaulay, ii. 463 

Marlborough, ii. 52 

of Sir T. Mayerne, ii. 446 

Lord Mayor's Banqueting, ii. 100 

of Milton in St. Bride's, i. 119 

of Milton in Petty France, ii. 402 

of Lord Mohun, ii.«i30 

Montagu, ii. 97, 224 

of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, ii. 99 



506 



INDEX. 



House, of Sir T. More^ ii. 431 

of Napoleon III., li. 68 

Newcastle, i. 90 

of Sir I. Newton, ii. 129 

Norfolk, ii. 50 

Northumberland, i. 6 

Northumberland, of the Earls of, i. 
344 

of Sir R. Peel, ii. 221 

Peterborough, ii. 424 

of Lord Peterborough at Parson's 
Green, ii. 499 

of Sir P. Pindar, i. 299 

Portsmouth, i. 94 

Powis, ii. 88 

of Princess i^melia, ii. 99 

of the Duke of Queensberry, ii> 82 

of Sir J. Reynolds, ii. 6, 127 

Rochester, i. 459 

of G. Romney, ii. 99 

of Roubiliac, ii. 6 

of the first Royal Academy, ii. 4a 

of the Royal Society, i. 109 

Salisbury, i. 19 

Schomberg, ii. 51 

Shaftesbury, i. 264 

Shakspeare's, i. 266 

Somerset, i. 33 

Southampton, ii. 191 

StafiFord, ii. 65 

Stratheden, ii. 45a 

Thanet, i. 264 

of Sir J. Thomhill, ii. 6, 127 

of Turner, at Chelsea, ii. 427 

of Vanbrugh, ii. 220 

of General Wade, ii. 78 

Wallingford, ii. 221 

of Horace Walpole, ii. 87 

of Sir R. Walpole, ii. 69 

of Izaak Walton, i. 106 

White, the, ii. 151 

of Sir R. Whittington, i. 273, 341 

Winchester, i. 278, ^58 

Winchester (at Chelsea), ii. 431 

Worcester, i. 28 

York, i. II 

of Count Zinzendorf, i. 446 
Houses of Parliament, ii. 385 
Hoxton, i. 317 



Infirmary, the, of Westminster, ii. 357 
Inns of Court and Chancery — 

Barnard's, i. 98 

Clifford's, i. 79 

Furnival's, i. 98 

Gray's, i. 98 

Lincoln's, i. 82 

Lyon's, i. 40 

Scroope's, i. 98 

Serjeants', i. 79 

Staple, i. 96 

Temple, Inner, i. 6x 



Inns of Court and Chancery— 

Temj>le, Middle, i. 71 

Thavies', i. 98 
Institution, Royal, ii. 79 

United Service, ii. 219 ■ 
Irvingite Church, ii. 184 
Island, Duck, ii. 119 

Thorney, ii. 228 
Islington, i. 2x5 



Kenningfton, il. 404 
Kensington Gore, ii. 453 
King's Jewel House, ii. 37a 
Knigbtsbridge, ii. 451 



Lambeth, ii. 404 
Lane, Basing, i. 323 
Billiter, i. 345 
Birchin, i. ,135 
Botolph, i. 423 
Canonbury, i. 117 
Carter, i. 442 
Chancery, i. 78 
Clement s, i. 335 
Cloak, i. 433 
Cock, i. 172 
Cree, i. 556 
Distaff, 1. 323 
Drury, i. 92 
Eldenesse, i. 159 
Elms, ii. 105 
Fetter, i. 107 
Field, i. 123 
Golden, i. 272 
Gravel, i. 348 
Gray's Inn, ii. 191 
Gutter, i. 227 
Hog, ii. 153 
Ivy Bridge, i. 18 
Kirion, i. 327 
Lad, i. 232 
Lewknor's, ii. 160 
Maiden, i. 27 
Mark. i. 340 
Middle Temple, 1.61 
Milford, i. 48 
Mincing, i. 337 
Nightingale, i. 347 
Pancras, i. 242 
Petticoat, i. 348 
Philpot, i. 336 
Pudding, i. 429 
Rood, i. 336 
St. Anne's, ii. 371 
St. John's, i. 199 
St. Martin's, ii. 6 
St. Pancras, i. 327 
Seacoal, i. 336 
Seething, i. 349 
Shire, i. 104 



INDEX. 



507 



J.4Uie, Shoe, i. X13 

Soper, i. 242 

Strand, i. 37 

Suffolk, i. 430 

Three Cranes, i. 434 

Tyburn, ii. 83 

Warwick, i. 158 

Water, i. 440 
library, British Museum, ii. x8a 

Charterhouse, i. 196 

Christ's Hospital, i. 165 

Grenville, ii. 182 

Guildhall, i. 241 

King's, ii. 181 

Lambeth, ii. 412 

Lincoln's Inn, i. 85 

Middle Temple, i. 76 

Royal Society, ii. 76 

Society of Antiquaries, ii. 78 

Westminster Abbey, ii. 356 

Westminster School, ii. 366 

Williams', i. 272 
Lincoln's Inn, i. 82 
Lincoln's Inn Fields, i. 85 
Lions of Landseer, ii. 2 
Little Britain, i. 260 
Lloyd's, i. 253 
Lodge, Airlie, ii. 463 

Argj'll, ii. 463 

Holly, ii. 463 

Lowther, ii. 452 
London Stone, i. 329 
London Wall, i. 273 
Long Acre, ii. 134 
Lord's Cricket Ground, ii. X4S 
Lothbury, i. 256 
Ludgate, i. 123 

M. 
Mansion House, the, i. 254 
Manufacture of Chelsea China, ii. 448 
Manufacture of Doulton Faience, ii. 43a 
Market, Billingsgate, i. 422 

Clare, i. 44 

Hungerford, i. ii 

James's, ii. 47 

Leadenhall, i. 352 

Newgate, i. 161 

Oxford, ii. 148 

Shepherd's, ii. 83 

Smithfield, i. 172 
Mar)debone, ii. 142 
Mayfair, ii. 83 
Maypole, the, in the Strand, i. 38 

Undershaft, i. ^54 
Meeting House, Quakers', i. 333 
Memorial, Albert, ii. 454 

Westminster Scholars', ii. 400 
Mint, the Royal, i. 418 
Monastery, Blackfriars, i. 438 
Monument, the, i. 424 
Moorfields, i. 301 
Museum, the Briti&h, ii. 165 

City, i. 241 



Museum, College of Surgeons, i. QS 
Don Saltero's, ii. 431 
The India, ii. 495 
London Missionary, i> jxt 
Soane, i. 86 

South Kensington, ii. 476 
United Service, iu S19 



N. 
National Gallery, ii. 7 
New Law Courts, the, i. 78 



Old Bailey, i. 168 

Old Chelsea Bun House, ii. 4*9 

Old Jewry, i. 246 

Opera, Italian, ii. 46 

Office, Admiralty, ii. 221 

Colonial, ii. 223 

East India, ii. 223 

Foreign, ii. 223 

Home, ii. 223 

Lost Property, ii. 220 

Police, ii. 223 

Record, i. 108 

War, ii. 49 
Offices of Messrs. Cubitt, it. xnyi 



P. 

Paddington, ii. 142 
Palace, Bridewell, i. 117 

Buckingham, ii. 114 

Chelsea, ii. 430 

Fulham, ii. 490 

Kennington, ii. 404 

Kensington, ii. 456 

Lambeth, ii. ,^10 

St. James's, ii. 53 

Savoy, i. 29 

of the Tower, i. 415 

Westminster, New, ii. 377 

Westminster, Old, ii. 375 

Whitehall, ii. 202 
Pall Mall, ii. 43 
Park, Battersea, ii. 450 

Bellsize, ii. 163 

Green, ii. 113 

Hyde, ii. 105 

Marylebone, ii. 142 

Regent's, ii. 139 

St. James's, ii. 115 

Westbourne, ii. 104 
Passage, Jerusalem, i. 208 

Lansdowne, ii. 84 

Sweedon's, ii. 273 
Pentonville, i. 220 
Petty France, ii. 40? 
Place, Argj'll, ii. 137 

Bedford, ii. 184 

Canonbury, i. 2co 



5o8 



INDEX, 



Place, Connaught, ii. lOS 
Duke's, i. 319 

Ely, ii. 196 

Hamilton, ii. 85 

Langham, ii. 139 

Palsgrave, i. 51 

Park, ii. 69 

Portland, ii. 139 

Rathbone, ii. 149 

St. James's, ii. 69 

Stratford, ii. 100 

Wardrobe, i. J42 

Waterloo, ii. 47 

Windsor, i. 264 
Piccadilly, ii. 70 
Post Office, the, i. 226^ 
Priory, Christchurch, i. 356 

Holy Trinity, i. 356 

St. Bartholomew's, i. 180 

St. John's, i. 199 
Prison, eierkenwell, i. 211 

Cold Bath Fields, i. 212 

Fleet, i. 120 

the Lollards, ii. 419 

Marshalsea, i. 465 

Millbank, ii. 424 

Newgate, i. 166 

Pentonville, i. 220 

Tothill Fields, ii. 400 
Poultry, i. 249 



Quadrant, the, ii. 124 
Queenhithe, i. 435 

R. 

Ratcliffe Highway, i. 419 
Record Office, i. 108 
Restaurant, Pontack's, i. 166 
Ring, the, ii. 108 
Row, Bolton, ii. 84 

Budge, i. 328 

Butchers', i. 41 

Canon, ii. 227 

Cheyne, ii. 447 

Church, i. 340 

Cleveland, ii. 6i 

Cooper's, i. 344 

Paternoster, i. 156 

Rochester, ii 400 

Rotten, ii. 107 
Road, Brompton, ii. 476 

Campden Hill, ii. 463 

Commercial, i. 350 

Edgeware, ii. 102 

Goswell, i. 266 

Horseferry, ii. 400 

Theobald's, ii. 189 

Tottenham Court, ii. 160 

Tyburn, ii. 100 
Rolls Chapel, i. 79 
Rookery, the, ii. 158 

Willis's, ii, 68 



St. Giles's, H. 154 

St. John's Wood, ii. 14X 
St. Paul's Cathedral, 1. 128 
Sanctuary of St. Martin's le Gnodt L 
222 
of Westminster, ii, 369 
of Whitefriars, i. 114 
Savoy, the, i. 29 

School, Archbishop Tenison's, U. 187 
Charterhouse, i. 195 
City of London, i. 231 
Grey Coat, ii. 400 
Mercers', i. 434 
Radcliffe, i. 351 
St. Paul's, i. 153 
Westminster, ii. 364 
Seldam, the, i. 234 
Serpentine, the, ii. 108 
Sessions House, Old Bailey, i. 168 

eierkenwell, i. 208 
Seven Dials, the, ii. 159 
Shadwell, i. 419 
Shop-front, the oldest, i. 25^ 
Shoreditch, i. 314 
Smithfield, i. 172 
Soane Museum, i. 86 
Society of Antiquaries, ii. 77 
of Arts, i. 17 
Astronomical, ii. 74 
Chemical, ii. 74 
Charity Organization, \~ <5 
Chemical, ii. 74 
Geological, ii. 74 
Linnaean, ii. 74 
Royal, ii. 74 
Soho, ii. 150 
Somers Town, 1. 22X 
Southwark, i. 460 
Spitalfields, i. 312 
Square, Audley, ii. 94 
Bedford, ii. 164 
Belgrave, ii. 109 
Berkeley, ii. 87 
Blandford, ii. 97 
Bloomsbury, ii. 183 
Bryanston, ii. 97 
Cavendish, ii. 98 
Charterhouse, i. 191, 
Cold Bath, i. 212 
Crosby, i. 287 
Dorset, ii. 97 
Finsbury, i. 301 
Golden, ii. 137 
Gordon, ii. 184 
Gough, i. 112 
Grosvenor, ii. 89 
Hanover, ii. 138 
Leicester, ii. 125 
Manchester, ii. g8 
Montagu, ii. 98 
Myddelton, i. 214 
Onslow, ii. 496 
Portman, ii. 96 



INDEX, 



S09 



Square, Prebend, 1. 817 

Printing House, i. 443 

Ked Lion, ii. 189 

Russell, ii. 184 

St. Tames'Sj ii. 49 

St. John's, I. 203 

Soho, ii. 150 

Southampton, ii. 183 

Spital, i. 314 

Tavistock, ii. 164 

Trafalgar, ii. i 

Trinity, i. 367 

Vincent, ii. 400 
Statue of Achilles, ii. 107 

of Queen Anne, i. 137 ; ii. 402 

of Lord George Bentinck, ii. 99 

of G. Canning, ii. 401 

of Charles I., i. 3 

of Charles II., Chelsea Hospital, ii, 
425 

of Charles II. by Gibbons, i. 232 

of Charles II. at the Mansion House, 

'• ?55 
of Sir R. Clayton, ii. 407 
of Lord Clyde, ii. 48 
of the Prince Consort, ii. 201, 454 
of Captain Coram, ii. 185 
of William, Duke of Cumberland, ii. 

99 
of Edward VI., i. 164; ii. 407 
of Queen Elizabeth, i. 107 
of Sir John Franklin, ii. 48 
of George I., ii. 129 
of George III., ii. 46 
of George IV., ii. 2 
of Sir H. Havelock, ii. 2 
of Lord Herbert of Lea, ii. 49 
of James II., ii. 219 
of the Duke of Kent, ii. 139 
of Melancholy and Madness, ii. 405 
of Sir H. Myddelton, i. 217 
of Sir C. Napier, ii. 2 
of Lord Nelson, ii. i 
of George Peabody, i. 279 
of Sir R. Peel, i. 223 
of Henry Peto, i. 98 
of William Pitt, ii. 138 
of Kichard I., ii. 391 
of Sir Hans_ Sloane, ii. 429 
of Queen Victoria, i. 232 
of Wellington, Hyde Park Comer, ii. 

of Wellington, Royal Exchange, i, 
250 

of William III., ii. 49 

of William IV., i. 332 

of the Duke of York, ii. 48 
Stangate, ii. 406 
Staple Inn, i. 96 
Stepney, i. 350 
Strand, the, i. 5 
Street, Addle, 1. 229 

Albemarle, ii. 79 

Aldersgatfc, i. 258 

Arlington, ii. 69 



Street, Ashby, i. 213 

Audley, North, ii. 96 

Audley, 'South, ii. 94 

Baker, ii. 98 

Basinghall, New, i. 275 

Bath, Great, i. 213 

Bennet, ii. 69 

Berkeley, ii. 84 

Bishopsgate, i. 282 

Bloomsburj', ii. 162 

Bond, ii. 78 

Borough, High, i. 460 ^ 

Bow, Covent Garden, i. s6 

Bread, i. 324 

Bridge, Westminster, ii. 40* 

Broad, i. 276 

Brook, ii. 94 

Brooke, li. 192 

Brydges, i. 19 

Bull and Mouth, i. S59 

Burleigh, i. 27 

Bury, ii. 68 

Cannon, i. 323 

Carey, i. 95 

Castle, ii. 148 

Cato, ii. 90 

Cecil, i. 19 

Chenies, ii. 164 

Chandos, i. 19, 27 

Charies (Berkeley Square), ii. 88 

Charles (Drury Lane), ii. i6o 

Charles (Grosvenor Square), ii. 89 

Charles (St. James's), li. 49 

Church, ii. 447 

Clarges, ii. 82 

Cockspur, ii. 45 

Coleman, i. 246 

Compton, ii. 150 

Cork, ii. 78 

Comhill, i. 360 

Coventry, ii. 124 

Cranboume, ii. 134 

Crown, ii. 153 

Curzon, ii. 82 

Cutler, i. 318 

Dean, ii. 150 

Delahay, ii. 227 

Denzil, i. 44 

Devonshire, i. 301 

Dover, ii. 79 

Downing, ii. 223 

Dudley, ii. 159 

Duke (Aldgate), i.347 

Duke (St. James's), iL 68 

Endell, ii. 160 

Essex, i. 48 

Exeter, i. 27 

Falcon, i. 261 

Farringdon, i. itj 

Fenchurch, i. 335 

Fish, Old, i. 323 

Fleet, i. loi 

Fore, i. 273 

Francis, ii. 164 

Friday, i. 230 



510 



INDEX, 



Street, Gairick, ii. 135 
Gerard, ii. 130 
Grosvenor, ii. Qi 
Giltspur, i. 172 
Gower, ii. 164 
Gracechurch, i. 333 
Great George, ii. 40X 
Gresham, i. 232 
Grub, i. 273 
Half Moon, ii. 82 
Harley, ii. 99 
Hart, i. 341 
Haymarket, ii. 46 
Holies, i. 44 

Holies (Cavendish Square), n. 99 
Holywell, i. 39 
Homer, ii. 91 
Hosier, i. 172 
Houghton, i. 24 
Howard, i. 48 
Howland, ii. 162 
James, ii. 47 
Jermyn, ii. 70 
jewin, i. 266 
Jewry, i. 347, ., . 
John (Adelphi), 1. 17 
King, i- 235 ,, 

King (Westminster), 11. 225 
Kingsgate, ii. 189 
King William, i. 333 
Knightrider, i. 324 
Leadenhall, i. 354 
Lime, i. 336 
Lombard, i. 334 
Long, ii.67 
Long Acre, li. 134 
Macclesfield, ii. 13a 
Margaret, ii. 148 
Market, ii. 47 
Middlesex, i. 348 
Milk, i. 231 
Milton, i. 273 
Monkwell, i. 262 
Montague, ii. 184 
Monmouth, ii. 159 
Mount, ii. 89 
Museum, ii. 165 
Newgate, i. 162 
Newport, ii. 135 
Norfolk, i. 47 
Old, i. 260 
Orchard, ii. 97 
Oxford, ii. 100 
Panton, ii. 47 
Portsmouth, i. 95 
Portugal, i. 95 
Queen, i. 242 ; ii. 434 
Queen, Great, i. 90 
Redcross, i. 268 
Regent, ii. 124 
St. Andrew's, ii. 159 
St. George's, i. 419 
St. James's, ii. 67 
St. Mary Axe, i. 357 
Salisbury, i. 19 



Street, Seymour, ii. 98 

Silver, i. 261 
Skinner, i. 312 
Southampton, i. 19 
Stangate, ii. 406 
Streatham, ii. 164 
Suffolk, ii. 45 
Surrey, i. 48 
Sutton, ii. 151 
Tavistock, i. 19 
Thames, Lower, i. 420 
Thames, Upper, i. 430 
Throgmorton, i. 257 
Ihreadneedle, i. 280 
Tower, Great, i. 363 
Upper, i. 217 
Villiers, i. 13 
Vine, ii. 399 
Wardour, ii. 149 
Warwick, ii. 45 
Watling, i. 326 
Wells, ii. 149 
Wentworth, i. 349 
Wild, Great, i. 92 
Wigmore, ii. 98 
Wimpole, ii. 98 
Winchester, Great, i. 297 
Windmill, Great, ii. 124 
Wood, i. 227 
Wych, i. 45 
York, ii. 402 
Sundials, of the Temple, i. 76 
of Lincoln's Inn, i. 83 

T. 

Tabernacle, Whitefield's, ii. 161 
Tattersall's, ii. 451 
Tavern, Angel, 1. 215 

Angel (St. Giles's), ii. 157 

Bell, i. 59 

Bell, Old, ii. 193 

Bible, i. 104 

Black Jack, i. 95 

Blue Boar, ii. iqo 

Blue Pig, ii. 190 

Bow, ii. i';7 

Cheshire Cheese, i. 112 

Cock, i. 105 

Cock (in Hackney), i. 317 

Cross Keys, i. 199 

Czar's Head, i. 367 

Devil, i. 103 

Doll3r's Chop House, i. 158 

Elephant, i. 337 

Four Swans, i. 295 

George, i. 461 

Green Dragon, i. 295 

Hummums, Old, i. 21 

Mermaid, i. 230 

Oxford Arms, i. 159 

Pillars of Hercules, ii. 112 

Queen's Head, i. 340 

Red Cow, i. 418 

Running Footman, ii. 88 



INDEX. 



5" 



Tavern, Sir Hui^h M3'ddelton, i. 214 

Star and Garter, ii. 51 

Tabard, i. 462 

Thatched House, ii. 67 

Three Nuns, i. 348 

Three Tuns, i. 423 

Waterman's Arms, i. 419 

White Conduit House, i. 2x9 

Wliite Hart, i. 461 
Temple, the, i. 6i 
Temple Bar, i. 51 
Terrace, Adelphi, i. 16 

Richmond, ii. 225 
Thames Tunnel, i. 419 
Theatre, the, i. 315 

Bankside, i. 459 

The Curtain, i. 315 

Drury Lane, i. 94 

The Duke's, i. 115 

The Globe, i. 459 

Red Bull, i. 213 

Sadler's Wells, i. 3X 

St. James's, ii. 68 

Salisbury Court, i. 115 
Times Printing^ Office, i. 443 
Tower, Canonbury, i, 218 

Hill, i. 367 

of London, i. 368 

of Montfiquet, i. 117 

Royal, i. 327 

of St. Mary Somerset, i. 436 

Victoria, ii. 377 
Town, Camden, i. 221 

Kentish, i. 221 

Somers, i. 221 
Treasury, the, ii. 223 
Trinity House, the, i. 417 
Tyburn, ii. loi 
Tyburnia, ii. 104 



University, New London, ii. 76 



Vauxhall, ii. 422 
Viaduct, Holbom, ii. 20l 
Villa, St. Dunstan's, ii. 143 

W. 

Walbrook, \. 255 

Walk, Artillery, 1.311 

Bird Cage, ii. 122 

Cheyne, ii. 42^ 
Wall of London, 1. 270, 275 
Wapping, i. 418 
Ward, Portsoken, 1. 347 
Wardrobe, the King's, i. 433 

the Queen's, i. 327 
Watergate of York House, L S3 
Well, Bagnigge, i. 214, 

the Clerks', i. 2H 

Crowder's, i. 271 

Sadler's, i. 214 

St. Bride's, i. 108 

St. Clement's, i. 43 

Skinners', i. 212 
Westminster Abbey, ii. 228 
Wharf, Battle Bridge, i. 469 

Botolph, 423 
Whetstone Park, ii. 190 
Whitechapel, i. 349 
Whitefriars, i. 114 
Whitehall, ii. 202 



Yard, Belle Sauvage, i. 124 
Coal, ii. i6o 

Dean's (Westminster), ii. 363 
Glass House, i. 443 
Ireland, i. 443 

Little Dean's (Westminster), ii. jfij 
Palace, New, ii. 378 
Palace, Old, ii. 390 
Playhouse, i. 272, 443 
Red Bull, i. 213 
Scotland, ii. 220 
Tilt, ii. 122 
Tokenbouse. i. 2^7 



XHB END. 



^3 t^t Samt Stttljor. 

WALKS IN ROME 

Third Edition 710 pp., crown 8vo, cloth, $3.50. 



*' And in connection with these explorations " (in Rome and Ostia), " we 
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MONTHLT. 

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" This book supplies the peculiar sort of knowledge which the traveler in 
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and felt by one who met them face to face, hand to hand, and was electrified with 
their throbbing pulse." — St. Louis Republican. 

" It is seldom that a work which contains so many of those matters of detail 
which are indispensable in a guide-book, has also the scholarly breadth and accu- 
racy which are so important in any comprehensive view of the leading cities of a 
country like Italy." — Boston Globe, 

" We have never seen a work which, of its character, equals the three volumes 
by Augustus J. C. Hare, entitled ' Cities of Northern and Central Italy.' By all 
odds it is the most complete, elegant, and interesting work designed for the use of 
sojourners and tourists in the most visited partsof Italy, that has ever come to our 

notice We can hardly give any idea of the completeness of the work, but 

every reader will recognize its value and careful preparation, as well as the gen- 
erous spirit of the author. He gathers from all sources, and his quotations — very 
numerous and altogether appropriate — are the very height of good judgment and 
the best recognition of a cultivated traveller's needs and tastes." — Boston Tbat- 

ELLER. 



GEORGE ROUTLEDGE & SONS, NEW YORK. 



§2 llje Samt %ni^ot. 
MEMORIALS OF A QUIET LIFE. 

W^ith Two Steel Poi-traits. 

Two volumes, 12mo, cloth, $5.00. Two volumes in One, 12mo, 
cloth, $ 3.50. 



" If it is a splendid serrice to men to make the way of duty look to them as the 
way of joy, to clothe the common drudgeries of obedience in garments of beauty, 
to render household routine sacred, and self-sacrifice attractive, then no ordinary 
honor belongs to these • Memorials of a Quiet Life.' " — Bishop Hdntington. 

" We are far from using the language of mere conventional eulogy -when we say 
that this is a book which will cause every right-minded reader to feel not only the 
happier, but the better." — Conservative. 

" The name of Hare is one deservedly to be honored ; and in these ' Memorials,' 
which are as true and satisfactory a biography as it is possible to write, the author 
places his readers in the heart of the family, and allows them to see the hidden 
sources of life and love by which it was nourished and sustained." — Athen^um. 

*' One of those books which it is impossible to read without pleasure. It con- 
veys a sense of repose not unlike that which everybody must have felt out of ser- 
vice-time in quiet little village churches. Its editOT will receive the hearty thanks 
of every cultivated reader for these profoundly interesting * Memorials ' of two 
brothers, whose names and labors their universities and church have alike reason 
to cherish with affection and remember with pride, who have smoothed the path 
of faith to so many troubled wayfarers, strengthening the weary and confirming 
the weak." — Standard. 

" The book is rich in insight and in contrast of character. It is varied and full 
of episodes which few can fail to read with interest ; and, as exhibiting the senti- 
ments and thoughts of a very influential circle of minds during a quarter of a cen- 
tury, it may be said to have a distinct historical value." — Nonconformist. 

•' A charming book, simply and gracefully recording the events of a simple and 
gracious life. Its connection with the beginning of a great movement in the Eng- 
lish Church will make it to the thoughtful reader more profoundly suggestive than 
many biographies crowded and bustling with incident. It is almost the first of a 
class of books the Christian world just now greatly needs, showing how the spir- 
itual life was maintained amid the shaking of religious ' opinions ' ; how the Ufe 
of the soul deepened as the thoughts of the mind broadened ; and how, in their 
union, the two formed a volume of larger and more thoroughly vitalized Christian 
idea than the English people had witnessed for many days." — Qlasoow Herald. 



GEORGE ROUTLEDGE & SONS, NEW YORK. 



Ig tge M^BBts ^axmt. 



WALKS IN FLORENCE. 

"With. Illustrations. 

Two volumes, 12mo, cloth, $ 6.00. 



" No one can read it without wishing to risit Florence, and no one ought to 
▼isit Florence without having read it." — London Times. 

" It will make one who has never seen the historic city of Dante as familiar with 
it as though he had spent years there. To visitors it will hereafter be almost a 
sine qua non as a hand-book." — Bbitish Quabterlt Review. 

" A pleasanter literary companion could scarcely be found Teeming with the 
results of observation, reading, and a sympathetical critical taste, its value is be- 
yond question." — Graphic. 

" We have in these two volumes a valuable acquisition." — Spectator. 

" The book will hereafter be a sine qua non for English and American visitors 
to Florence, whose numbers, we are fain to think, it will also tend very consider- 
ably to increase." — Nonconformist. 

" A work which, by the accuracy of its information, the exactness of its detail, 
and the refined taste conspicuous in every page, proves its authors to be worthy 
inheritors of the honored name they bear. Henceforward it will be as indispen- 
sable to every intelligent visitor to the ' City of Flowers ' as Mr. Hare's is for * The 
Eternal City.' " — Guardian. 

" This work must take rank as far superior to all other books on this subject, 
by its literary merit and its many marks of delicate culture and of care. It is to 
be henceforth indispensable to all who wish to enjoy appreciatively the city of 
Dante, of Galileo, and of the Medicean glories." — Churchman. 



GEORGE ROUTLEDGE & SONS, NEW YORK. 



§2 Prs. Paquoib. 

THROUGH iNORMANDY, 

With 90 Illustrations by T. R. Macquoid. 12mo, cloth, S 2.50. 



" ' Through Normandy' possesses the great charm of being written in a cheer- 
ful spirit. It leayes a bright and pleasant impression upon the mind ; and while 
those who already know Normandy will recognize the truth of her descriptions, 
and sympathize with her in her enthusiasm, those who are yet in ignorance of its 
attractions may be stirred by Mrs. Macquoid's advocacy to the amendment of their 
education." — Saturday Review. 

" The illustrations are excellent, and the work is pleasant as well as accurate." 

ATHENiEXnvi. 

" It so unites all necessary information with descriptions of scenery, with fine- 
art criticism, and with appropriate historical sketches, that it becomes a literary 
treasure." — Scotsman. 

" One of the few books which can be read as a piece of literature, whilst at the 
same time handy and serviceable in the knapsack." — British Quarterly Review. 

" Few readers will fail to catch some of her enthusiasm for a land so intimately 
connected with the early history of our race." — Record. 

"All will read with interest every chapter of Mrs. Macquoid's delightful, well- 
arranged book." — Tablet. 

" Every one of its over five hundred pages is charmingly interesting, giving a 
clearer insight into the village and hamlet life in Normandy, than in any work we 
have seen. Nooks, corners, and quiet places out of the way have been visited, 
and, with a quick, flowing pen, scenes of loveliness and picturesqueness are vividly 
described. The by-current of history is unobtrusive, and will captivate the reader 
as fully as will the descriptions of to-day life." — Traveller. 

"Few more interesting books of travel than 'Through Normandy' have ever 
been written. The authoress has performed her pleasing task with the utmost 
thoroughness and good taste. She tells of cathedrals and palaces, castles and 
prisons, works of art, and peoples and places with so much vivacity, ease, and 
grace that the reader becomes intensely engrossed without suspecting that he is 
absorbing a considerable amount of information upon French history and classics, 
or that the pages which so entertain him furnish both the inspiration and practi- 
cal directions to travel over the very ground which a graphic pen has so fasci- 
natingly delineated. Thus the work is rich in the details that are of use to the 
traveller, while the wealth of incident that is used to illustrate plain facts relieves 
the whole from any suggestion of dryness." — Boston Post. 



GEORGE ROUTLEDGE & SONS, NEW YORK. 



^3 t^t Same g-ut^or. 

WAI^DERINGS IN SPAIN. 

With Illustrations. Crown 8vo, cloth, |3. 



*' Mr. Augaptus J. C. Hare, whose ' Walks in Eome ' is a most delightful 
Itinerary which one finds in the hands of every visitor to the Eternal City, 
writes in ' Wanderings in Spain ' a no less charming account of travels in 
that seldom visited country. Mr. Hare is no ordinary traveler, who tricks 
out his page with cheap incident and clap-trap description ; his book is alike 
charming to the ordinary reader, and worth the attention of the earnest 
student of the new Republic, its people, its customs, its cities and its art."— 
N. Y. Evening Mail. 

" It is rarely that we have met a more delightful book of travels, or one 
more instructive. The literary style is unusually excellent, and the descrip- 
tions graphic, and marked by a thorough appreciation of Spanish life and 

character The illustrations interspersed in this volume are of 

Buch unusual excellence as to deserve especial mention. Such pictures 
really help out the letter-press, which is more than can be said of nine out of 
ten of the woodcuts with which modem books are so profusely illustrated." 
—Springfield Republican. 

" It is worth a score of ordinary books of travel. He gives us not only 
facts, but the impressions of facts. As depicted by him, Spain becomes a 
living reality. We seem to see its mountains, plains and valleys; to breathe 
its air, to walk its streets, to behold its majestic architectural monuments. 
We are brought in contact with its people ; we visit them in their homes, 
we jostle them in the streets, we hear their voices. We know of no picture 
of Spain so vivid, yet so truthful, and can heartily commend the volume as 
one of the rare works of the day."— California Press. 

" We recollect no book that bo vividly recalls the country to those who 
have visited it, and we should recommend intending tourists to carry it 
with them as a companion of travel." — London Times. 

" Mr. Hare's book is admirable. We are sure no one will regret making 
it the companion of a Spanish journey. It will bear reading repeatedly 
when one is moving among the scenes it describes,— no small advantage 
when the traveling library is scanty." — Saturday Review. 

" Since the publication of ' Castilian Days ' by the American diplomat, Mr 
John Hay, no pleasanter or more readable sketches have fallen under our 
notice than this s<;rieB of ' Wanderings in Spain.' "— Athen-eum. 



GEORGE ROUTLEDGE & SONS, NEW YORK. 



§5 i^t §nkt of S^SSU- 

THE REIGN OF LAW 

Essays on Divine Government. 

With Illustrations. 12mo, cloth, $ 2.00. 



" A Tery able book, well adapted to meet that spirit of inquiry which is 
abroad, and which the increase of our knowledge of natural things stimulates so 
remarkably. It opens up many new lines of thought, and expresses many deep 
and suggestive truths. It is very readable ; and there are few books in which a 
thoughtful reader will find more that he will desire to remember." — London 
Times. 

" This is in its way a masterly book Nothing can be abler than the way 

in which the Duke of Argyll disentangles and illustrates the various uses of the 
word * Law ' in its scientific sense, and shows how much it really means, what 
false meanings have been put upon it, and what are the scientific reasons for 

rejecting these false meanings The book is strong, sound, mature, able 

thought from its first page to its last." — London Spectator. 

" The Duke of Argyll's ' Reign of Law ' is written with admirable clearness. 
His criticism of Mr. Darwin, in the chapter entitled ' Creation by Law,' is a model 
of perspicuity and neatness." — The Chronicle. 

" We think it would be a profitable enterprise for some American publisher to 
reprint this book. It is one of the best of its class published in recent times. 
.... The author contributes to the illustrations of design in nature an interest- 
ing discussion of the ' machinery of flight ' in the wings of birds, and by this and 
other scientific matters makes his book a very readable one." — The Nation. 

" This volume is a remarkable work, in which the logical sufficiency of the argu- 
ments is equal to the perspicuity with which they are stated. The style is simple 
and clear, and not without eloquence, and the aptness and variety of the illustra- 
tions are striking." — The Evening Post. 

" This is a very great book ; great, because, while treating of the most profound 
subject of human thought, it can be read with comfort by those whom Mr. Lincoln 
called ' plain people.' " —The Round Table. 



GEORGE ROUTLEDGE & SONS, NEW YORK. 



§g % inhe of ^rggll. 

PRIMEVAL MAN. 

An Examination of some Recent Speculations. 

12mo, cloth, $1.50. 



" We have given a meagre outline of a book which deserves to be carefully 
read by all who would keep abreast of the leading tendencies of the time. It 
does much to set a difficult question in a more satisfactory light, but it does 
even better than this in furnishing a most admirable example of the temper in 
which such discussions should be conducted. If the cause of revealed truth 
had more defenders like the Duke of Argyll, we should hear less of the growing 
scepticism of men of science. He is, himself, a striking illustration of the 
entire compatibility of Christian faith with scientific culture." — The Living 
Church. 

" "Will doubtless long continue to command the respect of the best scholars 
of the day." — Detroit Free Press 

" The author of this work is doubtless one of the ablest thinkers in Europe. 
.... It has to deal with questions which touch upon the profoundest problems 
of our nature and of our history, and is altogether a very interesting and in- 
structive work, — one that all may read with profit." — Scientific American. 

"This volume is perhaps the most clear, graceful, pointed, and precise piece 

of ethical reasoning published for a quarter of a century The book is 

worthy a place in every library as skilfully popularizing science, and yet sacri- 
ficing nothing either of its dignity or of its usefulness." —London Noncon- 
formist. 

*' This book shows great knowledge, unusual command of language, and a 

true sense of the value of arguments It may be questioned and even 

confuted in some points, without losing any of its claims as a candid, clear, and 
high-minded discussion." — Pall Mall Gazette. 

"The style of his Grace (to say nothing here of his thought, of which others 
have spoken words of admiration certainly not too strong) often runs into poetry ; 
and it has everywhere that indescribable not-too-muchness which is always the 
cachet of high-class work." — London Illustr.\ted Times. 



GEORGE ROUTLEDGE & SONS, NEW YORK. 



MAN AND BEAST, 

Here and Hereafter. 

Illustrated by more than Three Hundred Original Anecdotes. 12rao, 
cloth, S 3.00. 



" The book is delightful." — British Quarterly Review. 

" It is filled with anecdotes which are very entertaining." — Saturday Review. 

•' Extremely readable and interesting If the talk runs on dogs, cats, cana- 
ries, horses, elephants, or even pigs or ducks, he who has ' Man and Beast ' at his 
fingers' ends may be sure of a story good enough to cap the best that is likely to 
be told." — Pall Mall Gazette. 

" Mr. Wood, by means of this very readable and well-condensed volume, has 
done more than any one else recently to call into active exercise the latent sympa- 
thy towards the lower animals which exists in all of us." — Nonconformist. 

"Except White of Selborne, no Englishman perhaps ever wrote more feelingly 
of animals, and with more sympathetic insight into their habits and ways. They 
wanted the sacer rates until Mr. Wood wrote ; if they were given to passing votes 
of thanks, the whole of the lower animals would express their gratitude to the au- 
thor of ' Man and Beast.' " — Observer. 

" The volume is most interesting. Mr. Wood sets his heart on observing the 
nature and habits of so-called dumb creatui-es, and few who love them will fail to 
be interested in this well-written volume." — Watchman. 

" We recommend all lovers of natural history to read it." — Land and Water. 

" This truly delightful volume." — World. 

" An exceedingly interesting and profitable book ; it is as readable as ro- 
mance." — American Presbyterian. 

" A most delightful book, that proves the lower animals share with man the 
attributes of reason, language, memory, a sense of moral responsibility, unselfish- 
ness, and love, all of which belong to the spirit and not to the body." — Philadel- 
phia City Item. 

" As to its intrinsic merits, we cannot speak too warmly The book is one 

of the most fascinating we have ever read A more delightful book for a men- 
tal luncheon, or a better and more appetizing literary ' cold ham ' at which to 
'cut and come again,' it would be hard to find" — Christian Intelligencer. 

" The book will find a deserved and permanent place in literature as one of the 
most entertaining collections of Zoological ana ever issued from the press, inter- 
esting alike to the philosopher and to the school-boy, and useful in cultivating that 
knowledge of inferior physiology which leads man to be merciful to beast, whether 
he admit the spiritual relationship or no." — New York World. 



GEORGE ROUTLEDGE & SONS, NEW YORK. 










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